Solar Desalination Driven by Organic Rankine Cycles (Orc) and Supercritical CO2 Power Cycles: An Update

Abstract

In the field of desalination powered by renewable energies, the use of solar power cycles exhibits some favorable characteristics, such as the possibility of implementing thermal energy storage systems or a multi-generation scheme (e.g., electricity, water, cooling, hydrogen). This article presents a review of the latest design proposals in which two power cycles of great potential are considered: the organic Rankine cycle and the supercritical CO2 power cycle, the latter of growing interest in recent years. The designs found in the literature are grouped into three main types of systems. In the case of solar ORC-based systems, the option of reverse osmosis as a desalination technology is considered in medium-temperature solar systems with storage but also with low-temperature using solar ponds. In the first case, it is also common to incorporate single-effect absorption systems for cooling production. The use of thermal desalination processes is also found in many proposals based on solar ORC. In this case, the usual configuration implies the cycle’s cooling by the own desalination process. This option is also common in systems based on the supercritical CO2 power cycle where MED technology is usually selected. Designs proposals are reviewed and assessed to point out design recommendations.

Innovative desalination system driven by a solar micro gas turbine for off-grid applications

“…• Four desalination technologies based on phase-change: i) Membrane Distillation (MD), ii) Multi-Effect Distillation (MED), iii) MED with Thermal Vapour Compression (MED-TVC) and iv) Humidification-DeHumidification (HDH) with values of Performance Ratios (PR) taken from recent bibliography on the topic [18,19].…”

Solar desalination: A review of recent developments in environmental, regulatory and economic issues

“…Delgado-Torres and Gacia-Rodrigues [14] reviewed the latest designs in solar desalination driven by organic Rankine cycles (ORC) and supercritical CO2 power cycles as power conversion units. The latter utilizes high and low temperature fluids to recover heat in a process to increase cycle efficiency.…”

“…The chief goal of the paper by Delgado-Torres and Gacia-Rodrigues [14] was the review of the literature and then to give design suggestions. The authors reported that in the mediumtemperature range, there were many studies in which the heat rejected by the cycle was employed to drive processes in thermal desalination as well as absorption cooling.…”

Solar-Powered Water Electrolysis Using Hybrid Solid Oxide Electrolyzer Cell (SOEC) for Green Hydrogen—A Review

“…Several solar power plants supply feed water or steam to the electrolyzer, which is then returned as liquid water to the Rankine cycle for evaporation [89]. The hydrogen produced by the SOEC units is compressed and stored using a single system shared by all four electrolysis units [90].…”