| Popis: |
The supply of freshwater is becoming an issue of increasing importance in many areas in the world. In arid areas, potable water is very scarce and the lives of people in these areas strongly depend on the amount of available water. Seawater desalination requires large amounts of energy and if this energy is produced by fossil fuels, it will have adverse impact on the environment. Therefore, renewable energy systems (RES) coupled to desalination units offer an attractive solution. Considerable research is under way to optimize the matching of renewable energy technologies with the corresponding desalination technologies and especially to reduce the energy required per unit volume of freshwater produced. The design, simulation, and optimization of the RES powered desalination units is an aspect of high importance in the planning and design phase of a project implementing desalination powered by renewable energy technologies. Therefore, new software packages combining the design of the RES and the desalination units were developed. Finally, great attention should be given to the environmental and socioeconomic sustainability of the renewable energy powered desalination units, failing to do so can lead to negative opinion of the community toward the installation of new systems. Keywords: renewable energy; desalination; desalination economics; advances in RES powered desalination; reverse osmosis |
