TY - JOUR
T1 - Desalination coupled with salinity-gradient solar ponds
AU - Lu, Huanmin
AU - Walton, John C.
AU - Swift, Andrew H.P.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank the US Bureau of Reclamation, the State of Texas, Bruce Foods, Inc., and the Center for Environmental Resource Management at the University of Texas at El Paso for their support of this project. We also thank Mr. Herb Hein, Mr. Dean Brown and the faculty, staff and students at The University of Texas at El Paso for their significant contributions to this project.
PY - 2001/5/1
Y1 - 2001/5/1
N2 - Thermal desalination by salinity-gradient solar ponds (SGSP) is one of the most promising solar desalination technologies. Solar ponds combine solar energy collection with long-term storage and can provide reliable thermal energy at temperature ranges from 50 to 90°C. Solar-pond-powered desalination has been studied since 1987 at the El Paso Solar Pond Project, El Paso, Texas. From 1987 to 1992, the research mainly focused on the technical feasibility of thermal desalination coupled with solar ponds. Since 1999, the research has focused on long-term reliability, improvement of thermodynamic efficiency, and economics. During this period, a small multi-effect, multi-stage flash distillation (MEMS) unit, a membrane distillation unit, and a brine concentration and recovery system (BCRS) were tested over a broad range of operating conditions. The most important variables for the MEMS operation were flash range, concentration level of reject brine, and circulation rate of the first effect. The brine concentration and recovery system is part of the goal of developing a systems approach combining salinity-gradient solar pond technology with multiple process desalination and brine concentration. This systems approach, called zero discharge desalination, proposes concentrating brine reject streams down to near NaCl saturated solutions and using the solution to make additional solar ponds. In addition to presenting the test results on the MEMS and BCRS units, this paper also presents a summary of solar pond operation experiences obtained from the 16-year operation at the El Paso solar pond.
AB - Thermal desalination by salinity-gradient solar ponds (SGSP) is one of the most promising solar desalination technologies. Solar ponds combine solar energy collection with long-term storage and can provide reliable thermal energy at temperature ranges from 50 to 90°C. Solar-pond-powered desalination has been studied since 1987 at the El Paso Solar Pond Project, El Paso, Texas. From 1987 to 1992, the research mainly focused on the technical feasibility of thermal desalination coupled with solar ponds. Since 1999, the research has focused on long-term reliability, improvement of thermodynamic efficiency, and economics. During this period, a small multi-effect, multi-stage flash distillation (MEMS) unit, a membrane distillation unit, and a brine concentration and recovery system (BCRS) were tested over a broad range of operating conditions. The most important variables for the MEMS operation were flash range, concentration level of reject brine, and circulation rate of the first effect. The brine concentration and recovery system is part of the goal of developing a systems approach combining salinity-gradient solar pond technology with multiple process desalination and brine concentration. This systems approach, called zero discharge desalination, proposes concentrating brine reject streams down to near NaCl saturated solutions and using the solution to make additional solar ponds. In addition to presenting the test results on the MEMS and BCRS units, this paper also presents a summary of solar pond operation experiences obtained from the 16-year operation at the El Paso solar pond.
KW - Brince concentration
KW - Low-temperature processes
KW - Solar desalination
KW - Solar pond
KW - Thermal processes
KW - Zero discharge desalination
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0035335788&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/S0011-9164(01)00160-6
DO - 10.1016/S0011-9164(01)00160-6
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0035335788
VL - 136
SP - 13
EP - 23
JO - Desalination
JF - Desalination
SN - 0011-9164
IS - 1-3
ER -