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Design of an autonomous desalination unit
Kijanica, Michael ; Máša, Vítězslav (oponent) ; Fan, Yee Van (vedoucí práce)
Water scarcity has evolved into a global issue beyond the concern of deserts and arid areas. Seawater desalination gained prominence as a means of producing drinking water in coastal areas facing long-term water scarcity. However, desalination is known for its technical complexity, energy intensive and incurring economic cost. The operation of desalination plants raised concerns about their environmental impact, particularly regarding energy consumption and the generation of high concentration brine waste. This master’s thesis focuses on designing an autonomous desalination unit that operates using solar energy with the economic feasibility and environmental impact assessment being evaluated. Two desalination units (Variant A: reverse osmosis, Variant B: Mechanical vapor compression) and their photovoltaic systems were designed based on insights from a thorough literature review. The reverse osmosis unit was selected for environmental evaluation based on technical and economic parameters – specifically because of lower energy intensity and lower investment cost. The designed Variant A has a daily production capacity of 22.1 m3 with a specific electricity consumption is 5.6 kWh/m3, which is comparable to units of similar capacity. The photovoltaic system has an electrical output of 209 kWp and consists of 36 panels covering a surface area of 95 m2. The investment cost for this reverses osmosis system amount to $146,550 with a calculated payback period of 5.6 years compared to Variant B, which has a payback period of 18.8 years. Out of the 11 assessed environmental impacts, the global warming potential impact of Variant A is identified as 335 kgCO2eq/1000m3, with 42 % contributed by material manufacturing and 58 % contributed by energy consumption. The environmental performance of solar-powered reverse osmosis desalination unit was assessed in comparison to the environmental impact of electricity supplied by the European and Czech grid mixes. Further research should focus on investigating the environmental impact of the autonomous desalination unit by expanding the scope to include the end-of-life management and transportation activities. Potential improvement could also be identified by optimizing the photovoltaic system and comparing this unit with emerging desalination technologies that are being researched.
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