Version 1
: Received: 17 September 2021 / Approved: 20 September 2021 / Online: 20 September 2021 (10:26:51 CEST)
How to cite:
Biain, J. Feasibility Design of an Optimized Desalinator Assisted Only by Solar Energy. Case: Saudi Arabia. Preprints2021, 2021090321. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202109.0321.v1
Biain, J. Feasibility Design of an Optimized Desalinator Assisted Only by Solar Energy. Case: Saudi Arabia. Preprints 2021, 2021090321. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202109.0321.v1
Biain, J. Feasibility Design of an Optimized Desalinator Assisted Only by Solar Energy. Case: Saudi Arabia. Preprints2021, 2021090321. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202109.0321.v1
APA Style
Biain, J. (2021). Feasibility Design of an Optimized Desalinator Assisted Only by Solar Energy. Case: Saudi Arabia. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202109.0321.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Biain, J. 2021 "Feasibility Design of an Optimized Desalinator Assisted Only by Solar Energy. Case: Saudi Arabia" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202109.0321.v1
Abstract
Desalinators are traditionally driven by fossil-fuels but in order to avoid greenhouse emissions, renewable energy must be used. In this paper, a coupling between multi-stage flash distillation apparatus and a parabolic trough solar collector is analyzed. The purpose of this study is to determine the economic feasibility of the system, considering four cities of Saudi Arabia and three different potable water productions. To avoid solar energy intermittency and unavailability at night, thermal storage is implemented. Whereas other researchers made parametric analyses, in this paper, the authors developed a mathematical program which was optimized with the help of GAMS software, where the capital cost of the plant was the objective function. After that, a life cycle cost analysis was carried out for each scenario. Depending on the region and water production, the costs of drinking water vary from 2.26 to 3.93 US$/m3, and from 7440 to 23825 tons of carbon dioxide emissions are avoided. As a consequence of the approach used, low costs are obtained; even though no auxiliary heater is implemented and the lowest irradiance conditions are considered. The results of this study reflect that the proposed process is competitive with respect to the traditional one.
Keywords
Economic; MSF process; Optimization formulation; Parabolic trough collector; Solar desalination.
Subject
Engineering, Energy and Fuel Technology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
