More than two billion people live in areas affected by water stress. In some coastal regions, freshwater supply has been progressively improved by large-scale desalination systems, which are nowadays mostly driven by non-renewable energy sources. Here we discuss, and experimentally investigate, the use of small-scale desalination devices for freshwater production powered by waste heat from electric power generators. The water purification technology relies on a passive, multi-stage and thermally-driven membrane distillation device, recently proposed by some of the authors of this work. The distiller is powered by low-grade (temperature lower than 80 °C) waste heat, recovered from the coolant circuit of small diesel engines for electricity production. Field experiments show that, for the tested engine, up to 1.12 kW m-2 can be recovered in standard operating conditions, which yield a nearly 2.61 L m-2 h-1 freshwater production from seawater. A lumped parameter model, validated by experiments, shows that this productivity could be eventually enhanced by tuning the number of distillation stages. Utilization with exhaust gases, and thus higher feeding working temperatures, is also discussed. The proposed solution may provide a sustainable, simple, inexpensive and efficient means for freshwater production from recovered waste heat, which would otherwise be wasted to the ambient. Therefore it could be particularly effective, for instance, for field hospitals in remote or impoverished areas, especially in emergency situations.

Sustainable freshwater production using passive membrane distillation and waste heat recovery from portable generator sets / Morciano, M.; Fasano, M.; Bergamasco, L.; Albiero, A.; Lo Curzio, M.; Asinari, P.; Chiavazzo, E.. - In: APPLIED ENERGY. - ISSN 0306-2619. - ELETTRONICO. - 258:(2020), p. 114086. [10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.114086]

Sustainable freshwater production using passive membrane distillation and waste heat recovery from portable generator sets

Morciano M.;Fasano M.;Bergamasco L.;Lo Curzio M.;Asinari P.;Chiavazzo E.
2020

Abstract

More than two billion people live in areas affected by water stress. In some coastal regions, freshwater supply has been progressively improved by large-scale desalination systems, which are nowadays mostly driven by non-renewable energy sources. Here we discuss, and experimentally investigate, the use of small-scale desalination devices for freshwater production powered by waste heat from electric power generators. The water purification technology relies on a passive, multi-stage and thermally-driven membrane distillation device, recently proposed by some of the authors of this work. The distiller is powered by low-grade (temperature lower than 80 °C) waste heat, recovered from the coolant circuit of small diesel engines for electricity production. Field experiments show that, for the tested engine, up to 1.12 kW m-2 can be recovered in standard operating conditions, which yield a nearly 2.61 L m-2 h-1 freshwater production from seawater. A lumped parameter model, validated by experiments, shows that this productivity could be eventually enhanced by tuning the number of distillation stages. Utilization with exhaust gases, and thus higher feeding working temperatures, is also discussed. The proposed solution may provide a sustainable, simple, inexpensive and efficient means for freshwater production from recovered waste heat, which would otherwise be wasted to the ambient. Therefore it could be particularly effective, for instance, for field hospitals in remote or impoverished areas, especially in emergency situations.
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
Morciano_2019_Sustainable freshwater_postprint.pdf

Open Access dal 19/11/2021

Descrizione: Post print articolo
Tipologia: 2. Post-print / Author's Accepted Manuscript
Licenza: Creative commons
Dimensione 458.19 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
458.19 kB Adobe PDF Visualizza/Apri
1-s2.0-S0306261919317738-main.pdf

non disponibili

Tipologia: 2a Post-print versione editoriale / Version of Record
Licenza: Non Pubblico - Accesso privato/ristretto
Dimensione 1.53 MB
Formato Adobe PDF
1.53 MB Adobe PDF   Visualizza/Apri   Richiedi una copia
Pubblicazioni consigliate

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11583/2770732
 Attenzione

Attenzione! I dati visualizzati non sono stati sottoposti a validazione da parte dell'ateneo