Abstract
Seawater desalination is one of the most promising fields for the application of solar thermal energy due to the usual coincidence, in many places in the world, of water scarcity, seawater availability and good levels of solar radiation. During the 90s the Plataforma Solar de Almería (PSA) carried out a research project that successfully demonstrated the technical feasibility of solar seawater desalination using parabolic-trough solar collectors coupled with a conventional multi-effect distillation unit. In spite of significant achievements in the process energy efficiency, by the development and implementation of a double-effect absorption heat pump, the technology could not compete in cost reduction with conventional thermal distillation or reverse osmosis processes. In 2002, the R&D European Project AQUASOL was initiated at the PSA in order to improve the existing solar thermal desalination technology. This paper describes all these experiences along with a detailed description of the AQUASOL desalination system, currently under evaluation at the PSA.
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BLANCO, J., ALARCÓN, D. (2007). THE PSA EXPERIENCE ON SOLAR DESALINATION: TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT AND RESEARCH ACTIVITIES. In: Rizzuti, L., Ettouney, H.M., Cipollina, A. (eds) Solar Desalination for the 21st Century. NATO Security through Science Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-5508-9_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-5508-9_14
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
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