Initiatives & Projects
Development and Optimization of a New Process for Desalination of Sea Water by Means of Solar Energy”
- The use of solar energy as an economical source for realising large scale
industrial sea water desalination is still unattainable. One of the main
obstacles in this respect is the need for expensive solar collectors to
cover large areas for collecting solar energy. For an economical solar
desalination plant, not only the used process has to be efficient and
cost-effective, but also the costs for collecting of solar energy have to be
minimized. Both issues are the subject of the present project in order to
approach an economical solar desalination of sea water.
- A new sea water desalination process and the adequate solar collectors
will be developed within the actual R&D project being partly supported
by the European Commission.
Project number | IC18-CT-1998-0265 | ||
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Subject(s) | MEASUREMENTS AND INSTRUMENTATION , INFORMATION - COMPUTER SCIENCES , no translation available | ||
Acronym | SOLDES | ||
Geographical coverage | Germany, Greece, Palestine, Tunisia | ||
Budget (in €) | n/a | ||
Programme | INCO MED (FP4) | ||
Web site | http://www.vtp.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/chafik | ||
Objectives | - By the proposed process, substantial investment reduction will be realised
using air as a heat carrier and keeping the maximum operating temperature in
the desalination plant significantly below 100 °C. The moderate solar heated
air will be humidified by injecting sea water into the air stream. Later on,
the water being free of salt will be extracted from the humid air by cooling
it. - A main feature of the present process is the successive loading of air with vapour up to a relative high humidity, such as 15 or 20 weight per cent. Such a high concentration of vapour is usually attainable by spraying water in hot air at about 500°C. The present process achieves the same effect at a maximum operating temperature not exceeding 80°C. - Aside from the optimized new process, a major subject of investigation is the design of new cost-effective plant components, especially the collectors. The development of new designs of economic collectors is already concluded providing a high efficient collector at low cost as required for the actual desalination process. - The developed desalination process and the new collector types will be the basis to design a pilot plant going to be constructed on the Mediterranian coast of North Africa where the complete process and the newly developed plant components can be tested and optimized. |
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Results |
1. The verification of the new sea water desalination
process will be provided. 2.Reliable technical and economical data of the new developed process for solar sea water desalination will be delivered. This will allow a construction of a prototype solar desalination plant. 3.A new type of solar collectors to heat air could be developed. - These collectors are mainly consisting of a "Four Fold Web" - Polycarbonate plate with inserted black aluminium strips. - These collectors are suitable for the following uses: a. As a solar heater for air up to a temperature about 90°C to be used in different processes, for example the desalination of sea water. b. An additional result could be gained: The new collector is an economic equipment for heating of buildings using solar energy to achieve a temperature enhancement of circulating air up to 20°C. |
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Period | [01/11/1998 - 31/10/2002] |