Research article

PV-Li-ion-micropump membrane systems for portable personal desalination

  • Received: 30 December 2015 Accepted: 24 March 2016 Published: 29 March 2016
  • This research presents a technical simulation of theoretically portable desalination systems utilising low-energy and lightweight components that are either commercially available or currently in development. The commercially available components are small-scale flexible and portable photovoltaic (PV) modules, Li-ion battery-converter units, and high pressure low voltage brushless DC motor-powered micropumps. The theoretical and conventional small-scale desalination membranes are compared against each other: low-pressure reverse osmosis (RO), nanofilters, graphene, graphene oxide, and graphyne technology. The systems were designed with the identical PV-Li-ion specifications and simulation data to quantify the energy available to power the theoretical energy demand for desalinating a saline water at 30,000–40,000 ppm total dissolved solid (TDS) to reliably supply the minimum target of 3.5 L d−1 of freshwater for one theoretical year. The results demonstrate that modern portable commercially available PV-battery systems and new generations of energy-efficient membranes under development have the potential to enable users to sustainably procure daily drinking water needs from saline/contaminated water resources, with the system exhibiting a net reduction in weight than carrying water itself.

    Citation: Mark P. McHenry, P. V. Brady, M. M. Hightower. PV-Li-ion-micropump membrane systems for portable personal desalination[J]. AIMS Energy, 2016, 4(3): 444-460. doi: 10.3934/energy.2016.3.444

    Related Papers:

  • This research presents a technical simulation of theoretically portable desalination systems utilising low-energy and lightweight components that are either commercially available or currently in development. The commercially available components are small-scale flexible and portable photovoltaic (PV) modules, Li-ion battery-converter units, and high pressure low voltage brushless DC motor-powered micropumps. The theoretical and conventional small-scale desalination membranes are compared against each other: low-pressure reverse osmosis (RO), nanofilters, graphene, graphene oxide, and graphyne technology. The systems were designed with the identical PV-Li-ion specifications and simulation data to quantify the energy available to power the theoretical energy demand for desalinating a saline water at 30,000–40,000 ppm total dissolved solid (TDS) to reliably supply the minimum target of 3.5 L d−1 of freshwater for one theoretical year. The results demonstrate that modern portable commercially available PV-battery systems and new generations of energy-efficient membranes under development have the potential to enable users to sustainably procure daily drinking water needs from saline/contaminated water resources, with the system exhibiting a net reduction in weight than carrying water itself.


    加载中
    [1] Belessiotis V, Delyannis E (2001) Water shortage and renewable energies (RE) desalination - possible technological applications. Desalination 139: 133–138. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(01)00302-2
    [2] Banat F, Jwaied N (2008) Economic evaluation of desalination by small-scale autonomous solar-powered membrane distillation units. Desalination 220: 566–573. doi: 10.1016/j.desal.2007.01.057
    [3] El-Nasher AM (2001) The economic feasibility of small solar MED seawater desalination plants for remote arid areas. Desalination 134: 173–186.
    [4] Al-Karaghouli A, Renne D, Kazmerski LL (2009) Solar and wind opportunities for water desalination in the Arab regions. Renew Sust Energ Rev 13: 2397–2407.
    [5] Al-Karaghouli A, Renne D, Kazmerski LL (2010) Technical and economic assessment of photovoltaic-driven desalination systems. Renew Energ 35: 323–328. doi: 10.1016/j.renene.2009.05.018
    [6] Gude VG, Nirmalakhandan N, Deng S (2010) Renewable and sustainable approaches for desalination. Renew Sust Energ Rev 14: 2641–2654. doi: 10.1016/j.rser.2010.06.008
    [7] Chaibi MT (2000) An overview of solar desalination for domestic and agriculture water needs in remote arid areas. Desalination 127: 119–133. doi: 10.1016/S0011-9164(99)00197-6
    [8] Risbey J, Kandlikar M, Dowlatabadi H, et al. (1999) Scale, context, and decision making in agricultural adaptation to climate variability and change. Mitig Adapt Strat Gl 4: 137–165. doi: 10.1023/A:1009636607038
    [9] Soric A, Cesaro R, Perez P, et al. (2012) Eausmose project desalination by reverse osmosis and batteryless solar energy: design for a 1 m3 per day delivery. Desalination 301: 67–74. doi: 10.1016/j.desal.2012.06.013
    [10] De Munari A, Capao DPS, Richards BS, et al. (2009) Application of solar-powered desalination in a remote town in South Australia. Desalination 248: 72–82. doi: 10.1016/j.desal.2008.05.040
    [11] Banat F, Qiblawey H, Al-Nasser Q (2012) Design and operation of small-scale photovoltaic-driven reverse osmosis (PV-RO) desalination plant for water supply in rural areas. CWEEE 1: 31–36. doi: 10.4236/cweee.2012.13004
    [12] Banasiak LJ, Schafer AI (2009) Removal of inorganic trace contaminants by electrodialysis in a remote Australian community. Desalination 248: 48–57. doi: 10.1016/j.desal.2008.05.037
    [13] Bennett R (2013) System and method for water purification and desalination. US, Lockheed Martin Corporation, 10.
    [14] Lazarov V, Zarkov Z, Kanchev H, et al. (2012) Compensation of power fluctuations in PV systems with supercapacitors. E+E 47: 48–55.
    [15] Glavin ME, Hurley WG (2012) Optimisation of a photovoltaic battery ultracapacitor hybrid energy storage system. Solar Energ 86: 3009–3020. doi: 10.1016/j.solener.2012.07.005
    [16] McHenry MP (2009) Remote area power supply system technologies in Western Australia: New developments in 30 years of slow progress. Renew Energ 34: 1348–1353. doi: 10.1016/j.renene.2008.09.008
    [17] McHenry MP (2009) Why are remote Western Australians installing renewable energy technologies in stand-alone power supply systems? Renew Energ 34: 1252–1256. doi: 10.1016/j.renene.2008.10.003
    [18] Architectural Energy Corporation (1991) Maintenance and operation of stand-alone photovoltaic systems. Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Boulder, Colorado, USA: Sandia National Laboratories.
    [19] Anand S, Fernandes BG (2010) Optimal voltage level for DC microgrids. 36th Annual Conference on IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (IECON), Glendale, Arizona, USA.
    [20] Lee KP, Arnot TC, Mattia D (2011) A review of reverse osmosis membrane materials for desalination - Development to date and future potential. J Membrane Sci 370: 1–22. doi: 10.1016/j.memsci.2010.12.036
    [21] Hassan AF, Fath HES (2013) Review and assessment of the newly developed MD for desalination processes. Desalin Water Treat 51: 574–585. doi: 10.1080/19443994.2012.697273
    [22] Wang EN, Karnik R (2012) Water desalination: Graphene cleans up water. Nat Nanotechnol 7: 552–554. doi: 10.1038/nnano.2012.153
    [23] Ahmadun F-R, Pendashteh A, Abdullah LC, et al. (2009) Review of technologies for oil and gas produced water treatment. J Hazard Mater 170: 530–551. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2009.05.044
    [24] Guillén-Burrieza E, Zaragoza G, Miralles-Cuevas S, et al. (2012) Experimental evaluation of two pilot-scale membrane distillation modules used for solar desalination. J Membrane Sci 409–410: 264–275.
    [25] Guillén-Burrieza E, Blanco J, Zaragoza G, et al. (2011) Experimental analysis of an air gap membrane distillation solar desalination pilot system. J Membrane Sci 397: 386–396.
    [26] Onsekizoglu P (2012) Membrane distillation: principle, advances, limitations and future prospects in food industry. In: Zereshki S, Ed. Distillation - advances from modeling to applications. Rijeka, Croatia, InTech, 233–266.
    [27] Zhu C, Li H, Zeng XC, et al. (2013) Ideal desalination through graphyne-4 membrane: nanopores for quantized water transport. Condensed Matter arXiv: 1307.0208
    [28] Tang Q, Zhou Z, Chen Z (2013) Graphene-related nanomaterials: tuning properties by functionalization. Nanoscale 5: 4541–4583. doi: 10.1039/c3nr33218g
    [29] Cohen-Tanugi D, Grossman JC (2012) Water Desalination across Nanoporous Graphene. Nano Letters 12: 3602–3608. doi: 10.1021/nl3012853
    [30] Cohen-Tanugi D (2012) Nanoporous graphene as a desalination membane: a computational study. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
    [31] Ganesh BM, Isloor AM, Ismail AF (2013) Enhanced hydrophilicity and salt rejection study of graphene oxide-polysulfone mixed matrix membrane. Desalination 313: 199–207. doi: 10.1016/j.desal.2012.11.037
    [32] Hu M, Mi B (2013) Enabling graphene oxide nanosheets as water separation membranes. Environ Sci Technol 47: 3715–3723. doi: 10.1021/es400571g
    [33] Cranford SW, Buehler MJ (2011) Mechanical properties of graphyne. Carbon 49: 4111–4121. doi: 10.1016/j.carbon.2011.05.024
    [34] Zheng JJ, Zhao X, Zhao Y, et al. (2013) Two-dimensional carbon compounds derived from graphyne with chemical properties superior to those of graphene. Sci Rep 3: 1271.
    [35] Department of Natural Resources Canada. RETScreen Version 4. (2010) Available from: http: //www.nrcan.gc.ca/energy/software-tools/7465.
    [36] Goal Zero (2013) Available from: http: //www.goalzero.com/.
    [37] KNF (2013) Diaphragm liquid pump data sheet NF 2.35. Available from: http: //www.knfusa.com/pdfs/nf2-35.pdf .
    [38] Amouha MA, Gholam RNB, Behnam H (2011) Nanofiltration efficiency in nitrate removal from groundwater: a semi-industrial case study. International Conference on Environmental Engineering and Applications (ICEEA), Shanghai, China.
    [39] The Dow Chemical Company (2013) Dow FilmtecTM NF90 nanofiltration elements for commercial systems. Available from: http: //www.dowwaterandprocess.com/en/products/f/filmtec-nf90_4040.
    [40] Xie W, Geise GM, Freeman BD, et al. (2012) Polyamide interfacial composite membranes prepared from m-phenylene diamine, trimesoyl chloride and a new disulfonated diamine. J Membrane Sci 403–404: 152–161.
  • Reader Comments
  • © 2016 the Author(s), licensee AIMS Press. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)
通讯作者: 陈斌, bchen63@163.com
  • 1. 

    沈阳化工大学材料科学与工程学院 沈阳 110142

  1. 本站搜索
  2. 百度学术搜索
  3. 万方数据库搜索
  4. CNKI搜索

Metrics

Article views(4423) PDF downloads(995) Cited by(0)

Article outline

Figures and Tables

Figures(6)  /  Tables(3)

Other Articles By Authors

/

DownLoad:  Full-Size Img  PowerPoint
Return
Return

Catalog