1. College of Mechanical and Power Engineering, Guangdong Ocean University, Zhanjiang 524025, China 2. College of Energy and Environmental Engineering, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300401, China 3. Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA
A reverse osmosis (RO) desalination system coupled with tidal energy is proposed. The mechanical energy produced by the tidal energy through hydraulic turbine is directly used to drive the RO unit. The system performances and the water cost of the conventional and tidal energy RO systems are compared. It is found that the proposed tidal energy RO system can save water cost in the range of 31.0%-41.7% in comparison with the conventional RO system. There is an optimum feed pressure that leads to the lowest water cost. The tidal RO system can save more costs at a high feed pressure or a high water recovery rate. The optimum feed pressure of the tidal energy RO system is higher than that of the conventional RO system. The longer lifetime of the tidal energy RO system can save even more water cost. When the site development cost rate is lower than 40%, the water cost of the tidal energy RO system will be lower than that of the conventional RO system. The proposed technology will be an effective alternative desalination method in the future.
Site developmentcost rate of DCC for tidal energy RO system/%
Greek symbols
Efficiency/%
Osmotic pressure/Pa
Water recovery rate/%
Superscripts
k
Index of membrane element in the pressure vessel
Subscripts
cr
Conventional RO system
enr
Energy
equip
Equipment
f
Feed water
Hpp
High pressure pump
in
Intake and pretreatment
m
Membrane element
max
Maximum value
p
Product water
pd
Pressure device
pw
Product water
site
Site development
Tb
Hydraulic turbine
t
Total
tr
Tidal energy RO system
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