II. İLERİ TEKNOLOJİLER ÇALIŞTAYI (İTÇ 2011) - Bilgesam

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modules from 50 to 150 Wp, they can produce drinkable water from brackish waters
containing salt concentrations of the order of 5000 ppm. (8-9)
The increasing use of desalination due to demographic and industrial growth makes
necessary a parallel increasing of energy sources. Desalination systems driven by
renewable energies are scarce, and they usually have a limited capacity. They only
represent about 0.02% of total desalination capacity. (10)
Renewable energies are found in nature: solar radiation, wind, energy of life beings,
of the sea, or the thermal energy of the earth. Since ancient times humans have used
some of these energy sources, but the main development of renewable energy
systems was due to petroleum crisis of 1973. (11) Besides that, the increasing
preoccupation about the environment has increased the use of renewable energies.
Nevertheless, their main limitations are their space and temporal changes, the high
land requirements and investment costs of renewable energy facilities, in spite of
their low operation costs. To avoid the fluctuations inherent in renewable energies,
different energy storage systems may be used. (12)
With regard to coupling seawater desalination technologies to renewable energy
systems, it is important to take into account different aspects: thermodynamic
considerations, specific characteristics of the system location and economic
evolutions. If the desalination system is going to be installed in a remote area, the
technology selection may be done; simplicity, easy handling, availability, maturity
of the technology, guarantee of fresh water production, suitability of the system to
the characteristics of the location, possibility of the future increase of the system
capacity, efficiency, among others. (13)
2. Results & Expectations
Figure 1: Schematic of a simple reverse osmosis (RO) system