Solar power and also desalination to be effectively connected for first time in brand-new project

• Cranfield University will certainly join 19 research companions spread out through 12 countries to establish a first-of-a-kind plant which pairs concentrated solar power (CSP) as well as desalination methods.

The 10M euro European Union's Horizon 2020 financed research and also advancement program will certainly last 4 years. Innovative technologies associated with both CSP as well as desalination will certainly be made to improve the effectiveness of existing ideas. Improvements will be made on the independent systems yet also on their coupling, capitalizing from the shared communication and also capacity.

Cranfield University is the only UK companion, as well as they are building on an enduring reputation in CSP, the give deserves 799k euro to them over 4 years.

Chris Sansom, Cranfield's Professor of CSP as well as Head of Centre for Renewable Energy Systems, claimed: "Getting environmentally-safe and lasting sources of both power and fresh water is an obstacle for lots of countries. The final demo system will certainly be a 2 MWel power plant constructed in Saudi Arabia combining two appealing modern technologies associated for the first time to get to unmatched effectiveness. For Cranfield, it is additional recognition of our study capabilities in both CSP and Water Sciences."

The DESOLINATION project concentrates on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region to test and deploy its modern technology. An initial prototype will certainly be built on the properties of King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

With high solar resources and high need for desalinated water, it is expected that the model will supply low-cost sustainable electrical power (<90Euro/MWh) as well as low-cost fresh water (<0.9 Euro/m3), matching the countries' needs for reliable and also available production of water.

Co2 blends will be the core of the technology in the concentrated solar procedure, causing a lot more reliable as well as more economical power cycle. With water, onward osmosis will certainly be developed and connected to membrane distillation making use of the thrown away heat from the power cycle to generate freshwater. Ultimately, an one-of-a-kind combination of the power as well as water cycles will permit the disruptive coupled system to work at high waste-heat-to-freshwater conversion efficiency.

The final system will certainly also take advantage of a significant reduction of CO2 emissions compared to traditional desalination systems.