Microgrid MED Desalination
Desalination is the name applied to removing impurities (usually salts) from water. Water in the <2% salt range is brackish water, sea water is 4%-5% salt and produced water is 10% and above. “Produced water” is the water removed from oil and gas wells that use hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to increase production. The higher the salt content, the more difficult the salt is to remove.
The simplest desalination method is Multiple Effect Distillation (MED) that has been developed industrially since the 1950s in Saudi Arabia. MED uses low-grade heat (<100C) for its processing. Even “left-over” heat or “waste heat” from our systems can power them. A Hectare system designed for electricity generation has nearly 3 MW of waste heat for desalination.
MED is well suited to small installations such as the Microgrid. Chines manufacturers such as Wenzhou Urban Machinery Co.,Ltd, (Zhejiang, China), Meidi Clean Technology (www.aircleanspace.com, Liaoning, China) and Nanjing Qirui Water Treatment Equipment (www.qiruiwater.com, Nanjing, China) make small MED desalination systems suitable for the Microgrid.
The simplest desalination method is Multiple Effect Distillation (MED) that has been developed industrially since the 1950s in Saudi Arabia. MED uses low-grade heat (<100C) for its processing. Even “left-over” heat or “waste heat” from our systems can power them. A Hectare system designed for electricity generation has nearly 3 MW of waste heat for desalination.
MED is well suited to small installations such as the Microgrid. Chines manufacturers such as Wenzhou Urban Machinery Co.,Ltd, (Zhejiang, China), Meidi Clean Technology (www.aircleanspace.com, Liaoning, China) and Nanjing Qirui Water Treatment Equipment (www.qiruiwater.com, Nanjing, China) make small MED desalination systems suitable for the Microgrid.
Hectare MED Desalination
Large MED desalination units are also available for use with a Hectare in large-scale desalination. The United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) has over a million refugees in northern Uganda that have migrated from the South Sudan civil war. The refugee camps have overwhelmed the small creeks and rivers there. Focused Sun Hectare plants can desalinate the brackish water and provide hot oil for cooking – all based on stored heat that is available day and night.
Reverse Osmosis (RO) has become the dominant desalination method in the last decade. RO forces salty water through a thin membrane under high pressure to give clean water on the other side of the membrane. Israel has dominated RO development and deployment. While MED desalination is a tried-and-true method of using heat for desalination, it is limited in its water delivery by its low 80C operating temperature. RO is a well-established desalination method but requires high energy to power the membrane pumps. Could we do better?
Focused Sun has partnered with Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN, USA) to desalinate more efficiently. The Warsinger Water Lab at Purdue has developed its “No-Air” desalination method that uses our 300C operating temperature combined with their innovative RO membrane to improve the efficiency over both MED and RO.
Purdue’s method won the “most innovative” prize by the International Desalination Association (IDA) for their No-Air method. Here is a short video on Purdue’s winning entry: https://youtu.be/YWO8pYaod8Y
Reverse Osmosis (RO) has become the dominant desalination method in the last decade. RO forces salty water through a thin membrane under high pressure to give clean water on the other side of the membrane. Israel has dominated RO development and deployment. While MED desalination is a tried-and-true method of using heat for desalination, it is limited in its water delivery by its low 80C operating temperature. RO is a well-established desalination method but requires high energy to power the membrane pumps. Could we do better?
Focused Sun has partnered with Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN, USA) to desalinate more efficiently. The Warsinger Water Lab at Purdue has developed its “No-Air” desalination method that uses our 300C operating temperature combined with their innovative RO membrane to improve the efficiency over both MED and RO.
Purdue’s method won the “most innovative” prize by the International Desalination Association (IDA) for their No-Air method. Here is a short video on Purdue’s winning entry: https://youtu.be/YWO8pYaod8Y