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Photovoltaic-powered desalination system for remote Australian communities

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  • Richards, Bryce S
  • Schäfer, Andrea I

Abstract

This paper reports on the design and successful field testing of a photovoltaic (PV)-powered desalination system. The system described here is intended for use in remote areas of the Australian outback, where fresh water is extremely limited and it is often necessary to drink high salinity bore water. A hybrid membrane configuration is implemented, whereby an ultrafiltration (UF) module is used for removing particulates, bacteria and viruses, while a reverse osmosis (RO) or nanofiltration (NF) membrane retains the salts. The concepts of water and energy recovery are implemented in the design. Field trials, performed in White Cliffs (New South Wales), demonstrated that clean drinking water was able to be produced from a variety of feed waters, including high salinity (3500 mg/l) bore water and high turbidity (200 NTU) dam water. The specific energy consumption ranged from 2 to 8 kW h/m3 of disinfected and desalinated drinking water, depending on the salinity of the feed water and the system operating conditions. The optimum operating pressure when filtering bore water was determined to be in the range 6–7 bar.

Suggested Citation

  • Richards, Bryce S & Schäfer, Andrea I, 2003. "Photovoltaic-powered desalination system for remote Australian communities," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 28(13), pages 2013-2022.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:28:y:2003:i:13:p:2013-2022
    DOI: 10.1016/S0960-1481(03)00081-8
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Harrison, D.G. & Ho, G.E. & Mathew, K., 1996. "Desalination using renewable energy in Australia," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 509-513.
    2. Herold, D. & Horstmann, V. & Neskakis, A. & Plettner-Marliani, J. & Piernavieja, G. & Calero, R., 1998. "Small scale photovoltaic desalination for rural water supply - demonstration plant in Gran Canaria," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 293-298.
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    Cited by:

    1. Sadegh Modarresi, M. & Abada, Bilal & Sivaranjani, S. & Xie, Le & Chellam, Shankararaman, 2020. "Planning of survivable nano-grids through jointly optimized water and electricity: The case of Colonias at the Texas-Mexico border," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 278(C).
    2. Gude, Veera Gnaneswar & Nirmalakhandan, Nagamany & Deng, Shuguang, 2010. "Renewable and sustainable approaches for desalination," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(9), pages 2641-2654, December.
    3. Li, Sheying & Cai, Yang-Hui & Schäfer, Andrea I. & Richards, Bryce S., 2019. "Renewable energy powered membrane technology: A review of the reliability of photovoltaic-powered membrane system components for brackish water desalination," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 253(C), pages 1-1.
    4. Ali, Muhammad Tauha & Fath, Hassan E.S. & Armstrong, Peter R., 2011. "A comprehensive techno-economical review of indirect solar desalination," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(8), pages 4187-4199.
    5. Li, Sheying & Voigt, Achim & Schäfer, Andrea I. & Richards, Bryce S., 2020. "Renewable energy powered membrane technology: Energy buffering control system for improved resilience to periodic fluctuations of solar irradiance," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 877-889.
    6. Eltawil, Mohamed A. & Zhengming, Zhao & Yuan, Liqiang, 2009. "A review of renewable energy technologies integrated with desalination systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 13(9), pages 2245-2262, December.

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