Freshwater from Seawater with Solar Based Water Desalination in Rural Areas

PAVING A BRIGHT FUTURE FOR SOLVING WATER SCARCITY

Solar based water desalination is an effective strategy to convert seawater from the oceans into fresh water that is suitable for people to drink. This technique is gaining popularity in countries like Saudi Arabia that lack perennial rivers and regions that face scarcity of clean drinking water.

Outlook of solar based water desalination technologies that is transforming water industry

The Elemental Water Source^TM plug & play solar desalination technology is a breakthrough innovation in the market of solar based water desalination. Companies are taking cues from such advancements to increase R&D in unique energy recovery technology to desalinate seawater by using almost 70% less energy than traditional desalination technologies.

Pillars of next-gen solar based water desalination:

1. HDH Desalination: The solar-powered humidification-dehumidification (HDH) desalination method is an efficient strategy to vaporize water from a saline liquid stream to form purified water. But companies should focus on truly understanding the benefit of the HDH system using multivariable design optimization.
2. CSP-based Desalination: Concentrated solar power (CSP)-based desalination holds promising potentials to reduce the gap in uneven geospatial distribution of freshwater resources amongst different regions. To achieve this, companies are improving solar collection and by developing hybrid CSP systems that deploy cost-efficiency.
3. Membrane Desalination: Membrane desalination technology is gaining popularity to solve water shortage problems due to its advantages of low energy consumption than distillation methods. To innovate in this method, companies are experimenting with organic-hybrid and inorganic membrane materials that can provide advantages such as useful chemical & thermal resistance, high flux and good selectivity.

Thus, to excel in solar based water desalination, stakeholders should collaborate with technicians and researchers to explore opportunities in solar-driven thermal desalination technologies.