Session: 09-02 Solar Desalination

Paper Number: 116473

116473 - Distributed Solar Desalination With Energy Storage and Brine Management 

Projections indicate that over half the global population will be living under severe water stress by the end of this decade. Desalination technologies can close the gap between water demand and supply, as well as augment existing freshwater reserves by tapping into nontraditional water sources (e.g., brackish groundwater and industrial discharges). However, these water sources tend to be small, are geographically widespread and predominantly inland, which has resulted in a push towards decentralized water treatment for local reuse. The shift to distributed treatment of nontraditional water sources also provides a good fit for coupling with renewable energy (i.e., solar) to deliver sustainable water supply by reducing the energy and environmental footprint of desalination. Despite this potential, renewable desalination accounts for only 1% of the global installed capacity owing to challenges associated with intermittency. Another issue is management of a concentrated brine as a byproduct of the desalination process, which cannot be disposed easily in inland locations due to environmental concerns associated with hypersaline water. Thus, there is a need to analyze different solar desalination technologies using a technoeconomic framework for distributed desalination. In this presentation, we compare state-of-the-art desalination systems (membrane and thermal-based) coupled with solar energy (as heat and electricity) in terms of their levelized cost of water produced (LCOW). To account for renewable intermittency on desalination performance, we discuss different energy storage technologies (thermal and electrochemical) as a subsystem. To minimize the adverse environmental impact of brine disposal, we also analyze the potential of achieving zero liquid discharge as another subsystem. Projecting to 2030, we show that distributed solar desalination can be economically favorable over conventional fossil fuel driven desalination, and we offer technology solutions that can lower the cost of renewable desalination and ZLD even further.

Presenting Author: Akanksha Menon Georgia Tech

Presenting Author Biography: Dr. Akanksha Menon is an Assistant Professor in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech and directs the Water-Energy Research Lab. Prior to this, she was a Rosenfeld Postdoctoral Fellow in the Energy Technologies Area at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, where she continues to be a Research Affiliate. Her research focuses on applying thermal science/engineering and functional materials to develop sustainable technologies for the water-energy nexus. Examples include solar desalination for a circular water economy, thermal energy storage for decarbonizing heat, novel heat-driven air conditioning cycles, and carbon-negative building materials. Dr. Menon is a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award in 2023, she was recognized as a Riser by DARPA in 2022, and she is in the Class of 1969 Teaching Fellows cohort. Dr. Menon is a recipient of the 2019 Sigma Xi Dissertation Award and the 2017 Materials Research Society (MRS) Silver Award. She was also recognized in the 2020 Falling Walls Breakthroughs of the Year: Emerging Talents category, and she was featured by the U.S. Department of Energy in their Women @ Energy initiative.