Development of Solar Powered Membrane Desalination Unit

膜法海水淡化(MD)是一种运行温度在40-80℃之间的热驱动净水工艺。太阳能MD不仅对海水淡化有吸引力，而且对食品工业、医疗领域以及环境应用(如去除水中的苯和重金属)也很有吸引力。该方案意在建立一个太阳能MD净水系统。这是一个独立的系统，它将集中式光伏热泵(CPV/T)和合适的反渗透泵与智能控制器结合在一起，从咸水和/或微咸水中提供饮用水。该系统将被设计为在高达80摄氏度的温度下运行，这一温度低于传统蒸馏技术的运行温度。与其他膜过程相比，它还可以在较低的静水压力下运行。这将使偏远地区的技术在经济上具有竞争力，特别是在印度。该项目的总体目标是开发和展示一种可靠、高效和具有成本效益的MD海水淡化系统，该系统基于集中式光伏和热能集热器(CPV/T)，具有超过75%的综合电力/热效率。海水淡化装置的目标效率改进预计在2%至4%之间。任务1：对太阳能海水淡化技术进行最先进的文献综述(0-6个月)任务2：针对不同颗粒组合的纳米孔膜及其稳定性进行多项实验(0-12个月)任务3：改进现有的纳米孔膜综合传热模型(6-20个月)任务4：建立适用于各种天气条件(18-30个月)的MD集成CPV系统实验基地，包括在太阳能实验室进行为期3个月的室外性能分析，任务5：数值和实验模型验证和参数分析(30-36个月)任务6：论文撰写和博士论文提交，VIVA和所需修改应在项目结束前完成。

Membrane desalination (MD) is a thermally driven water purification process with an operating temperature of 40 to 80C. The solar-powered MD is attractive not only to water desalination but also to food industries, medical fields, and to environmental applications such as the removal of benzene and heavy metals from water. This proposal intends to build a system with a solar powered MD for water purification. This is a stand-alone system which is combining concentrated photovoltaics thermal (CPV/T) and a suitable reverse osmosis pump with the smart controller to provide potable water from salt water and/or brackish-water. The system will be designed to operate at a temperature of up to 80C which is a lower operating temperature than that of conventional distillation technologies. It also operates under a lower hydrostatic pressure than that of other membrane processes. This will give economically competitive technology in remote locations, especially in India. The overall aim of the project is to develop and demonstrate a reliable, highly efficient and cost-effective MD desalination system based on concentrated photovoltaic and thermal (CPV/T) energy collectors, with a combined electrical/thermal efficiency of over 75%. The targeted efficiency improvement for the desalination unit is predicted to be between 2% to 4%. Following tasks will be undertaken during the studentship:Task 1: Undertake state-of-the-art literature review for solar-powered desalination technologies (0-6 months)Task 2: Carryout several experiments of the nanoporous membrane for different particle combination and its stability, such as TiO2, ZnO, and Ag samples (0-12 months)Task 3: Improve the existing integrated model for heat transfer through the nanoporous membrane (6-20 months)Task 4: Setup an experimental base for MD integrated CPV system for a wide range of weather conditions (18-30 months), including outdoor performance analysis for three months at the Solar Lab, Penryn Campus.Task 5: Numerical and experimental model validation and parametric analysis (30-36 months)Task 6: Thesis writing and Ph.D. submission towards, viva and required amendments to be before the end of the project.