Renewable Energy Forward Osmosis Desalination System

Remote or isolated communities not located near a convenient source of potable water are forced to transport their water from distant sources. If desalination is used to produce potable water locally then a reliable source of energy is required. If energy is unavailable (or unreliable) then fossil fuels to generate the heat and electricity for the desalination process must be transported. Transporting fuel and water adds cost which can be burdensome to the community. In many parts of the world, especially within the military, transporting fuel and water is not only costly but hazardous and logistically troublesome. Objective – This proposed effort will design and model a 10kW thermoelectric generator (TEG) that can be heated by a commercially available Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) parabolic
trough. The electricity from the TEG, along with the waste heat will power an efficient Forward
Osmosis (FO) desalination system producing potable water. The Autonomous Desalination
System (ADS) will be able to produce low cost water anywhere in the world with no external
source of energy besides the sun. The new FO technology is a disruptive technology using less than half the energy used by commercially available desalination methods. The technology is being demonstrated and has been verified by independent sources. A subsystem of the 10kW TEG will be built and tested.
Work Statement – Hi-Z will complete this project in five tasks: -Technical Model - Economic Model
- Autonomous Desalination System (ADS) Model - TEG Design - TEG Fabrication and Testing
Commercial Applications – By eliminating the need to transport fuel, or use any external
energy, it is expected that the system will produce water at less than $1.00/m3, significantly less
than other commercial desalination systems operated at a scale matched to typical remote
communities. Making low cost water available to remote communities with limited access to
power or water will have major social and economic benefits to the public. Potential customers
are the military, communities who need to transport their fuel and water, industries who need to
clean up waste water, resorts in area’s with restricted water such as the Caribbean, Mexico,
Central America and Pacific Islands, Oil & Gas companies who need to reinject or transport
production water and drought stricken communities with access to sea water or other suitable
feedwater. Water produced with the ADS system has zero emissions.
Key Words – Desalination, thermoelectric, forward osmosis, concentrated solar power