EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS OF MULTI-EFFECT HUMIDIFICATION (MEH)-DEHUMIDIFICATION SOLAR DISTILLATION
Bruno de Lima Soares1; Gabriel Ivan Medina Tapia2
1 Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte; CTGAS-ER; 2 Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte
doi:10.20906/CPS/COB-2015-0563
Resumo
Desalination is widely adopted in the world to meet fresh water and process water demands. Nearly 10,000 tons of oil is required every year to produce 1,000 m³/day of desalinated water. Desalination industry can be made sustainable if they are integrated with renewable energy and if proper brine disposal. Renewable energy based desalination units are highly suitable for arid, semi-arid and remote regions where no other mode of power supply is possible. Most of them require thermal and/or electrical input that can be provided by solar energy and hence much focus has been given to solar based systems. In Brazil one of the big obstacles to develop the solar energy industry is the lack of solar resource knowledge and measurement. The objective of this paper is present experimental results of a Multi-Effect Humidification (MEH) - dehumidification solar distillation unit installed in Natal. This MEH system has two cycles of water. The closed cycle is fulfilled with distilled water that will be heated in the solar thermal array and will heat the water of the open cycle through a heat exchanger. The open cycle is fulfilled with the raw water that needs to be processed. This water is heated and evaporates. In another stage, the steam condensates and it consists basically by water molecules (H2O). The brine is discharged from the evaporator. Seawater testing results are presented and all parameters measured are considerably satisfactory for drinking water.
Palavras-chave: Thermal; Solar energy; Desalination; multi-effect humidification