Fondecyt 11121208, , CEDEUS (FONDAP/15110020)
Abstract
Global population growth and higher standards of living are significantly increasing the demand for energy and water. Many areas around the world suffer from fresh water shortages, and consequently, they have been relying on desalination technologies as a non-conventional source of fresh water. Nonetheless, current desalination systems require significant quantities of energy for water purification. This additional need of energy cannot be fulfilled using fossil fuels because of the negative environmental impacts of combustion and the rapid depletion of fossil fuel reserves. Desalination powered by renewable energy sources is an attractive solution to address the worldwide water- shortage problem because it has lower environmental impacts and lower greenhouse gas emissions.
This research aims to investigate the impact of evaporation suppression from a salt-gradient solar pond on energy collection, and on water production rates of a membrane distillation system powered by a solar pond. The main hypothesis of this research is that a significant increase in fresh water production rates will result from the reduction of evaporation.
The photograph below shows the experimental setup when suppressing evaporation using transparent floating discs.
The next figure shows the thermal evolution of the experimental salt-gradient solar pond.
The next graph shows the estimated water production rates in the membrane distillation / salt-gradient solar pond coupled system for different geographical locations.
The next photograph presents the salt-gradient solar still.
Research Team
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