Rural Application of a Low-Pressure Reverse Osmosis Desalination System Powered by Solar–Photovoltaic Energy for Mexican Arid Zones
, Jonathan Ibarra-Bahena 2, Luis E. Cervera-Gómez 1,3, Rosenberg J. Romero 4, Jesús Cerezo 4, Antonio RodrÃguez-MartÃnez 1 and Ulises Dehesa-Carrasco 2,*
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear Author,
Your paper a good research and hard working. your work has been prepared with a lot of effort. It can be very beneficial for your area. it can also be turned into a product with industrial design. but there are many studies that have been done before as an academic study. hybrid systems should be used in this regard, solar systems should not be used alone, other than these, different methods should be used.
Author Response
We appreciate your support. A comment at the end of the results section regard to the hybrid systems was added. In fact, the next step of our research work is the integration of the membrane distillation process for brine treatment.
Reviewer 2 Report
The authors tested a LPRO system powered by solar energy for the production of clean water in arid area; this is a meaningful pilot scale study. The research methodology and discussion is logical, though somehow unusual like the word cloud. The work in overall is clearly presented and sound.
One question: Did author estimate the cost of clean water production? It would be helpful to provide.
Author Response
Dear reviewers,
We would like to sincerely thank the editor and reviewers for giving us an opportunity to revise and improve our manuscript. Below we gave the corrected/added content to the manuscript. The corrected/added content is highlighted in different color in the manuscript.
We are grateful for your comments and guidelines. The subsection 5.2 was added to describe the cost analysis.
Reviewer 3 Report
This paper is satisfactorily and written in a proper way. For easy understanding on how the RO can be powered by solar-photovoltaic energy, I strongly recommend the authors to include a basic concept section after Introduction to illustrates how the concept works.
Author Response
Dear reviewers,
We would like to sincerely thank the editor and reviewers for giving us an opportunity to revise and improve our manuscript. Below we gave the corrected/added content to the manuscript. The corrected/added content is highlighted in different color in the manuscript.
Thanks for your comments and support. Section 2 and Figures 2 and 3 were added to describe the LPRO-PV system.
Reviewer 4 Report
Cervantes-Rendón et al. presented a promising study demonstrating the efficacy of a low-pressure reverse osmosis desalination system powered by solar-photovoltaic energy in Mexican arid zones. The system, when tested with synthetic water with a salinity of 2921 ± 62.3 mg/L, produced the maximum freshwater volume of 1.8 m3/day with a salinity value of 91 mg/L, which satisfied the basic freshwater requirements for a local family integrated by 3 members for one year, including the mobility restriction period due to the COVID-19, pandemic. This technology, thus, has great potential to produce freshwater in arid and isolated regions with high salinity groundwater sources. Overall, the writing and the organization of the manuscript are logical and well-written. However, in the interest of publication standards, I have the following comments:
1. It is highly suggested to revise the English grammar.
2. Provide the standard error bars in the figures. Also, provide the standard deviation in the values reported in the manuscript.
3. It is worth discussing the similar efforts by other groups, e.g., Schäfer et al., to compare this work and already published efforts.
Author Response
Dear reviewers,
We would like to sincerely thank the editor and reviewers for giving us an opportunity to revise and improve our manuscript. Below we gave the corrected/added content to the manuscript. The corrected/added content is highlighted in different color in the manuscript.
We are grateful for your comments and support.
- An English grammar check was carried out by a native speaker.
- Error bars were added in Figures 7 to 11.
- Table 6 was added to compare our results with other groups.
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
I think author work has been prepared with a lot of effort. but there are many studies that have been done before as an academic study. hybrid systems should be used in this regard, solar systems should not be used alone, other than these, different methods should be used.
