Jf. Manwell et Jg. Mcgowan, RECENT RENEWABLE ENERGY DRIVEN DESALINATION SYSTEM RESEARCH-AND-DEVELOPMENT IN NORTH-AMERICA, Desalination, 94(3), 1994, pp. 229-241
This paper summarizes the current status of renewable energy driven wa
ter desalination projects built or designed in North America. It consi
ders both solar and wind energy as the energy sources. It discusses re
sults of experimental projects and assessments that have been made of
them. It also includes a discussion of advances in development of comp
onents that have been used in such systems. The following processes ar
e considered: simple distillation, multistage flash distillation, free
ze separation, vapor compression, electrodialysis, and reverse osmosis
(RO). As indicated, the paper specifically addresses projects of Nort
h American origin. Among the most successful renewable energy driven p
lants to date have been those that use RO. Reverse osmosis is, in fact
, the most commonly used method of conventionally powered desalination
in the United States. For example, approximately 100 RO systems are k
nown to be operating in Florida. For that reason a particular effort h
as been directed at describing those developments in RO technology in
North America that can be applied in renewable energy driven applicati
ons. Similarly, advances in wind energy system design make wind turbin
es more readily usable for powering RO systems reliably and cost effec
tively than they could do so in the past. The paper discusses these ad
vances in the context of desalination, and suggestions are made for fu
ture development which could further enhance wind energy's potential f
or use in desalination.