This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
0941254 Georgiadis
The focus of this project is to perform the basic theoretical and experimental research for a novel method of water desalination using solar energy. A key element of the proposed process is to use seawater as the working fluid and to maintain independence from sources of energy other than solar. A novel aspect of the process is to employ a high temperature solar collector fluid (~ 1000 °C) and to couple steam and power generation with the thermal desalination component. Multiple Effect Distillation (MED) will be coupled to a closed power cycle driven by steam from a direct solar-thermal input, a concept known as Concentrated Solar Power Desalination of Seawater (CSP-DSW). The prediction of the performance of thermo-hydraulic devices will be based on numerical simulations of two-phase flow in channels using Lattice Boltzmann methods for multiphase flows and employing realistic equations of state. The PIs will focus on the design of a thermal desalination system, which will initially be used for the model verification at UIUC before it is transported to Cyprus and integrated with the solar collection and turbine systems. The thermal desalination test bed will be designed with the ability to operate both indirect and direct desalination modes. The work on the direct desalination methods will focus on exploiting the higher temperatures available from the solar collection component to prevent fouling by the brine. Although they represent thermodynamically inefficient and high-risk concepts, such experimental systems constitute indispensable test beds for the study of new technologies, new materials, and the validation of the numerical simulation tools. The development of a relatively compact thermal desalination system affords flexibility and allows radically different experimental approaches, not possible with large-scale systems. The PIs have been involved in the Concentrated Solar Power ?Desalination of Seawater (CSP-DSW) project of the Cyprus Institute, sponsored by the government of Cyprus and the European Union. CSP-DSW is an interdisciplinary collaboration between the Cyprus Institute, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), the Electricity Authority of Cyprus, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
In terms of the broader impacts, this high-risk project has the potential to guide the design of a solar-based process to produce both electrical energy and freshwater with little CO2 production. Cyprus currently has two desalination facilities, and there is interest in developing this technology for use in regions with high solar flux including the Mediterranean region.
This project is co-funded by the Office of International Science and Engineering.
