The solar is Earth’s source of renewable power. Efforts to desalinate with sunlight began before 1900. For a low-cost and scalable water supply, the key challenge is to marry a high-efficiency desalination system to a high-efficiency solar energy system. For thermal desalination, this requires excellent heat retention and reuse within the system. Our group has evaluated solar-drive for membrane distillation (MD) and humidification-dehumidification (HDH) desalination. This included the first effort to use direct solar heating of the MD membranes. We have also evaluated utility-scale solar-driven desalination.
During the period of our studies (roughly 2010 to 2020), the costs of PV have fallen sharply, with large-scale, nondispatchable, solar power being implemented at less than US$0.03/kWh. Storage designs, both CSP and PV, have dropped below US$0.08/kWh. These trends have strongly favored the large-scale deployment of solar desalination, especially PV-RO. What a wonderful development in our battle against water scarcity and climate change!
Selected Papers on Solar Desalination
Z. Xu, L. Zhang, L. Zhao, B. Li, B. Bhatia, K. Wilke, Y. Song, O. Labban, J.H. Lienhard V, R.Z. Wang, E.N. Wang, “Ultrahigh-efficiency desalination via a thermally-localized multistage solar still,” Energy & Environmental Sci., online 20 Jan. 2020, 13(3):830-839, 2020. (doi: Open access) (preprint)
T. Altmann, J. Robert, A.T. Bouma, J. Swaminathan, and J.H. Lienhard V, “Primary Energy and Exergy of Desalination Technologies,” Applied Energy, online 17 June 2019, 252:113319, 15 October 2019. (doi link) (preprint) RO is the most efficient of a wide range of desalination technologies under fossil or solar primary energy.
J.H. Lienhard V, G.P. Thiel, D.E.M. Warsinger, L.D. Banchik (eds.), “Low Carbon Desalination: Status and Research, Development, and Demonstration Needs, Report of a workshop conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in association with the Global Clean Water Desalination Alliance,” MIT Abdul Latif Jameel World Water and Food Security Lab, Cambridge, Massachusetts, November 2016. (pdf)
E.K. Summers and J.H. Lienhard V, “Experimental Study of Thermal Performance in Air Gap Membrane Distillation Systems including Direct Solar Heating of Membranes,” Desalination, 330:100-111, December 2013. (doi link)
First measurements of direct solar heating of MD membranes
E.K. Summers and J.H. Lienhard V, “A Novel Solar Air-Gap Membrane Distillation System,” Desalination and Water Treatment, 51:1344–1351, Feb. 2013. (doi link)
E.K. Summers, M.A. Antar, and J.H. Lienhard V, “Design and optimization of an air heating solar collector with integrated phase change material energy storage for use in humidification-dehumidification desalination,” Solar Energy, 86(11):3417-3429, Nov. 2012. (doi link)
J.H. Lienhard V, A. Bilton, M.A. Antar, G. Zaragoza, and J. Blanco, “Solar Desalination,” in Annual Review of Heat Transfer, Vol. 15. New York: Begell House, Inc., 2012. (pdf)
R. Saffarini, E.K. Summers, H.A. Arafat, J.H. Lienhard V, “Economic evaluation of stand-alone solar-powered membrane distillation systems,” Desalination, 299:55-62, August 2012. (doi link)
R. Saffarini, E.K. Summers, H.A. Arafat, J.H. Lienhard V, “Technical evaluation of stand-alone solar-powered membrane distillation systems,” Desalination, 286:332–341, Feb. 2012. (doi link)
E.K. Summers, J.H. Lienhard V, and S.M. Zubair, “Air-heating solar collectors for humidification-dehumidification desalination systems,” Journal of Solar Energy Engineering, 113(1):011016, 14 Feb. 2011. (doi link) (PDF)
G.P. Narayan, M.H. Sharqawy, E.K. Summers, J.H. Lienhard V, S.M. Zubair, and M.A. Antar, “The potential of solar-driven humidification-dehumidification desalination for small-scale decentralized water production,” Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 14(4):1187-1201, May 2010. (doi link) (preprint)
Specific primary energy consumption of various desalination technologies when paired with different types of power plant (Altmann et al., Applied Energy, 2019).