Solar powered RO desalination: Investigations on pilot project of PV powered RO desalination system

Abstract

Water scarcity are serious problem in many areas of the world, such as the Middle East and North African countries (MENA), the Southern European Mediterranean Islands (SEMI) and isolated communi- ties in desert or arid areas of Central Asian countries. One of the promising solutions for this problem is devel- oping of autonomous system of drinking water supply or desalination systems working on RES, particularly solar energy. However, RES especially solar energy potential of the most arid areas is usually high. In addition, the cost of primary fuel is getting up while the need to maintain clean environment is becoming an important issue worldwide [1, 2]. There are a number of desalination methods proposed by scientists and available on the market. Among them, reverse osmosis (RO) is quite suitable for small to medium capacity systems and also has good perspectives for cost reduction and improvement in efficiency in the near future. And a number of research works on solar powered RO systems, from pilot project to industrial scale developed and proposed by researches which can be found from literature. This paper presents a review of the highlights that have been achieved during the last years in solar powered RO desalination. Also proposed the preliminary investigations on developed small scale PV powered RO desalination system, which supposed to be feasible system to use by small farmers in rural areas of Central Asia. © Allerton Press, Inc., 2010.