| Abstract: | Issues of water, energy and environment are highly related. New water techniques consume energy and vice versa. Different desalination techniques are used, consuming different levels of energy from different sources. For some reason, people believe that energy consumption in desalination is very high, other are trying to find new directions in order to reduce energy consumption, sometime by increasing the investment. It is important to note that more work is needed to be done to reduce not only the energy consumption, but the water cost as well. However, good knowledge in thermodynamics, heat and mass transfer processes as well as proper understanding the current desalination processes is essential for a success and possible improvements.
There is a thermodynamic low limit, for the work needed in order to separate water from solutions as salted water. The actual consumption of energy is higher, yet in modern desalination techniques the gap is relatively small. It is small enough that only small reduction is possible. The actual energy consumption, of the different desalination processes will be presented in the lecture. Comparison to other common energy consuming services will be shown, and interesting conclusions will be drawn. Finally, analysis of the new directions in desalination, in terms of energy consumption will be presented.
|
