Renewable energy applications for freshwater production

Worldwide, many regions have a great potential to cover part of their pressing water needs by renewable energy powered water treatment processes using either thermal or membrane based technologies. Not only arid and semiarid regions are increasingly exposed to water shortage but also many other regions face a limitation of freshwater resources either by increasing contamination of surface water bodies and/or groundwater resources unsuitable for drinking and irrigation purposes either due to their high grade of mineralization or their contents of toxic components as e.g. arsenic, which affects worldwide the drinking water of over 200 million of people. In many areas without centralized water supply, treatment techniques using locally available renewable energy resources such as wind, solar and geothermal can provide an economical, social and environmentally sustainable option for clean water production from seawater and from highly mineralized or otherwise unsuitable ground- and surface water. Renewable Energy Applications for Freshwater Production provides an overview on possible cost-efficient techniques and application opportunities for different scales and shows why the implementation of these technologies faces numerous technological, economic and policy barriers and gives suggestions how these hurdles can be overcome. Costs of novel treatment units using renewable energy sources are discussed and compared with those of other technologies for clean water production considering external costs, such as environmental and social costs which are caused by using fossil fuel based technologies. Energy efficiency is highlighted since it is of special importance in systems that are to be powered by renewable energy. Moreover applications of water supply systems providing water in emergency condition are discussed.

ncreasing water needs and freshwater shortage demand production of drinking water using renewable energy sources, Introduction, The water problem, The energy problem, Overview on technologies based on renewable energies for freshwater production, Conclusions and outlook; Overview of renewable energy technologies for freshwater production, Introduction, Freshwater production using renewable energies, Scale-up and economic considerations, Case studies, Environmental concerns and sustainability, Regulatory, policy and legal considerations, Choosing the most appropriate technology for freshwater production, Concluding remarks; Use of passive solar thermal energy for freshwater production, Introduction, Passive solar stills, Thermodynamic modeling of the solar still, Performance of the solar still, Designs and techniques to improve the performance of the solar still; Solar desalination with humidification-dehumidification Process: design and analysis, Introduction, State-of-the-arts, Design and working principle of the SMCEC Desalination unit, Components mathematical modelling, Numerical results, Experimental validation, Cost analysis; Solar PV powered RO systems, Introduction, Review of the state-of-the-art, How to implement a PV-RO system, Description of the technological concept, Technical characteristics of selected operating systems, Economic and social issues, Conclusions; Wind energy powered technologies for freshwater production: Fundamentals and case studies, Introduction, Wind energy technology, Wind energy for freshwater production, Wind desalination market, Conclusions; Freshwater production using geothermal energy, Introduction, Desalination using renewable energies, Geothermal energy and desalination, Case studies, Environmental considerations and sustainability, Market potential, barriers to growth and risk management, Concluding remarks; Solar disinfection as low-cost technologies for clean water production, Introduction to low-cost technologies for disinfection and decontamination of drinking water for human consumption, Drinking water disinfection, Use of solar energy for disinfection, Heterogeneous photocatalysis, Fenton and photo-Fenton processes in water disinfection, Conclusions