Session: 11-02: Process Heat for Desalination and Industrial Decarbonization

Paper Number: 121712

121712 - Design of Solar Powered Desalination System and Applications in a Luxurious Beach Resort 

Abstract: 

The efficacy of seawater desalination has positively impacted many countries around the world and such advantage can be witnessed through the reduction in water demand-supply gap. The importance of this process is greater in dry and arid countries such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where a large proportion of 90% of the country’s water supply relies solely on seawater desalinated. In the UAE, a high share of the desalination plant’s output is aimed towards the residential sector that consumes 50% more than the global average. In efforts to reduce the detrimental effects on the environment from traditional desalination plants which powered by fossil fuels and maintain the successful present realm of supplying freshwater in the UAE, this paper aims to design a solar-based hybrid desalination system with novelty subsiding in the integration of concentrating photovoltaic thermal (CPV/T) system with reverse osmosis (RO) and multi effect distillation (MED) plants. The significance of the module among other benefits stems from its cogeneration functionality to simultaneously produce electricity and heat. The proposed system was used to supply the daily fresh water demands of one of Beach Resorts located in Fujairah that serves an average of 110 occupants per day. The electrical output of the solar technology is supplied to the reverse osmosis plant for the distillation of the seawater near the resort. Meanwhile, the thermal output embedded in the heat transfer fluid is supplied to the multi effect distillation plant through a stratified storage tank for further production of freshwater that can be used in many applications that require water consumption. The system operates through the abundance of solar energy available in the country without the need of a backup energy source. As a result, the criteria for designing the stratified storage tank was based on solar standalone system. The study was modelled on TRNSYS software taking into consideration the dimensions and parameters of each equipment in order to evaluate the performance of the heat transfer fluid, average cell temperature, and electrical output of the module against time. A thorough analysis of reverse engineering and computational simulation proved an efficient solar system providing energy of 3500 kWh, more than the limit required to target the residential resort. In addition, the economic feasibility of the system was evaluated by execution of a cost analysis under an average lifetime of 20 years. As a result of the performed cost analysis, the simple payback period of the system was found to be 3.5 years.

Presenting Author: Fadi Ghaith Heriot Watt University Dubai Campus

Presenting Author Biography: Dr Fadi Ghaith is the Head of the School of Engineering and Physical Sciences at Heriot-Watt University, Dubai Campus. He led multidisciplinary research in the areas of renewable energy, heat transfer and engineering education. His recent research focuses on solar powered cooling systems, integrated earth air heat exchangers and solar desalination. Dr Ghaith held different positions in the Oil and Gas industry such as Design and Development Engineer, technical purchasing manager and Engineering Consultant. During his service on these positions, he led many projects which exceeded the value of 10 Million USD. His industrial experience is recognized internationally as being Fellow and Chartered Engineer in the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (CEng FIMechE) and Certified Consultant and professional engineer in the Jordan Engineering Council (PE, JEA).

Authors:

Siren Khuri Heriot Watt University
Fadi Ghaith Heriot Watt University Dubai Campus