Publicación: Experimental analysis of an air gap membrane distillation solar desalination pilot system
Fecha
2011-09
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info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
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Elsevier
Resumen
Freshwater shortage difficulties make it necessary to find new sources of supply. Nowadays desalination is the solution adopted in many countries to solve this problem. All around the planet, regions with lack of freshwater match up with those with large amounts of available solar radiation. Therefore, solar desalination can be a suitable and sustainable option to tackle the water scarcity problems in those particular areas, especially in the coastal ones where the majority of human population lives. Membrane distillation (MD) is a thermal membrane technology developed since late 60´s which uses low exergy heat to drive a separation process in aqueous solutions. One of its applications is desalination where thanks to its separation principle, very high distillate quality can be obtained. Amongst its advantages, its low operating temperatures, ranging between 60-90º C [Lawson and Lloyd, 1997] make possible the use of low-grade heat, the kind of energy easily delivered by static solar collectors, as the only thermal supply. This, jointly with its low operational pressure and small footprint, make MD coupled with solar energy (Solar Membrane Distillation) in principle, a promising technology. Under the framework of a European project (MEDESOL Project) funded by the European commission, an innovative desalination system based on solar air gap membrane distillation has been investigated. The system is intended to be technically simple to operate, robust and able to cover water demands of small settlements. The experimental set-up was built at Plataforma Solar de Almería facilities (leading partner) and tested during 4 months. The desalination system consists of a three MD desalination modules system supplied with the thermal energy of a static collector’s solar field. Desalination and solar circuits are connected through a plate heat exchanger especially coated to withstand hot seawater operational conditions. The system was run during solar hours (as the layout doesn’t contemplate heat storage) and the experiments were designed to characterize the system. The overall performance of the system was evaluated with both tap water and a 35 g L-1 NaCl aqueous solution. The distillate production and quality were evaluated as a function of the operational parameters, as well as the thermal consumption and specific desalination parameters such as performance ratio (PR). The system can work at temperatures up to 95ºC on the hot feed side and up to 60 ºC on the refrigeration side. This paper will show the experimental results as well as the operational experiences of the system.
Descripción
Categorías UNESCO
Palabras clave
Membrane distillation, Air gap membrane distillation, Solar desalination, Pilot MD plant
Citación
"Elena Guillén-Burrieza, Julián Blanco, Guillermo Zaragoza, Diego-César Alarcón, Patricia Palenzuela, Mercedes Ibarra, Wolfgang Gernjak., “Experimental analysis of an air gap membrane distillation solar desalination pilot system,” Journal of Membrane Science, vol. 379, no. 1–2, pp. 386–396, Sep. 2011, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2011.06.009
Centro
Facultades y escuelas::E.T.S. de Ingenieros Industriales
Departamento
Ingeniería Energética