Desalination plant resting solely on renewable energy sources

Kurzfassung

An Italian SME, which boasts a range of products about traditional or special instruments and devices dealing with pressure and temperature measurement, has developed a study on a desalination plant working only with renewable energies. The drinking water production cost per litre is very competitive compared to traditional desalination plants and if we consider low implementation cost of this plant. The Italian SME is looking for partners abroad willing to collaborate in further development.

Details

An Italian company was founded in Milan in 1878 and produces instruments and devices dealing with pressure and temperature measurement.
Together with a research institute, they have studied the implementation of a desalination plant through the sole utilisation of renewable energy sources. This project aims to produce about 4.000 litres/hour of drinking water - 8 hours a day, 320 days a year.
The desalination technology applied to plants rests on the principle of reverse osmosis through semi-permeable membranes.
The researchers have concentrated on saving energy during the production of water through the contemporaneous utilisation of both heat energy and the photovoltaic effect. Indeed, thanks to this experimental method, this plant consumes 25% energy less than traditional desalination plants. To obviate to the problem that renewable energies employed do not work full regime all the time, the researchers have developed different technical solutions, which can allow the plant to adapt to power variations without stopping production. Furthermore, they have managed to reduce energetic dispersion through specific equipment, recuperating in this way 5% energy more.
Product life is equal to 15 to 20 years. The drinking water production cost is around 4 €/1.000 litres.
The state of the art is as follows:
- Building materials have been identified
- A working plan of each phase has been realised
- Several tests of critical paths have been made
- Desalination plant layout has been identified

Innovative Aspects:
- Use of solely renewable energies to desalinate sea water, such as heat energy and photovoltaic energy
- Saving of 25% energy more than with traditional desalination plants
- Additional 5% energy saving through the utilisation of specific equipment, which has been studied by a research institute
- Easily transportable from one site to another
- Easy to be maintained (no skilled labour is needed for plant assembling and dismantling, nor for ordinary maintenance)
- As regards diagnostics, continuous monitoring of each component and data sending via radio and satellite to a data collecting centre have been foreseen
- Possibility of mass-production for this plant, in order to obtain economies of scale