Iranian Researchers Find New Solution to Provide Drinking Water in Remote Areas

“One of the main problems that many countries are currently facing is the problem of fresh water supply. Nearly 70% of the earth's surface is covered by water, but a small percentage of it (about 4%) is sweet. The increase in population and the expansion of industries that require water has led to an increasing consumption of fresh water, in a way that many countries, including Iran, are currently facing a major challenge in providing fresh water for their consumption, and the number of these countries will increase in the future,” Ehsan Houshfar, an Associate Professor at the Department of Energy Conversion of the University of Tehran.

Noting that in this research, a new solution for desalination of sea water has been proposed, which is called humidification-dehumidification or HDH for short, and is inspired by the process of rain production, he said, “In fact, desalination systems for desalination of sea water, which is one of the conventional ways to supply fresh water, is carried out in many ways, and each of these methods has its own advantages and disadvantages; the advantage of the method introduced in this research is less energy consumption than other methods in a way that the waste heat of other systems can be used in it.”

“In this research, an independent desalination unit using HDH, solar panels for simultaneous production of electricity and heat (PVT) and compression chiller is proposed to provide stable water to remote areas that have access to sea water,” Houshfar said.

“The solar panel supplies the electricity required for the chiller and the heat required for the HDH, and the incoming seawater is preheated by the condenser of the chiller. Therefore, the overall performance of the system is significantly improved for fresh water production,” he went on to say.

Earlier, in April, Iranian researchers at Sharif University of Technology had also succeeded in designing and building a new solar water desalination system by using the humidification-dehumidification method which is equipped with a heat pump.

“Desalination by humidification-dehumidification method is one of the most practical small-scale desalination processes. This method has outstanding advantages like low operating temperature, the ability to use solar energy, simple structure and no need for skilled personnel,” said Mohammad Behshad Shafiyee, a professor of Sharif University of Technology and a PhD graduate in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan.

“At present, this method has been industrialized in the European countries and South Africa. On the other hand, following increase in the energy costs, the importance of its optimal use also increases. Today, in order to use energy optimally, the combination of different types of desalination systems with heat pumps has attracted the attention of many researchers,” he added.

Noting that heat pumps are suitable alternatives for heat recovery from various sources for industrial, commercial and domestic applications, Shafiyee said, “The purpose of this research is to experimentally study a new integrated system of desalination, humidification, dehumidification, and solar heat pump. Due to the importance of water in the economic development of Iran and its key role in production processes, it was necessary to conduct such a research.”

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