Design of photovoltaic system powered a small-scale SWRO desalination plant

Abstract

This paper illustrates a proposed design to the Center for Solar Energy Research and Studies (CSERS) - Tajura, for the erection and testing of a stand-alone photovoltaic (PV) system for the powering of a small scale seawater reverse-osmosis (SWRO) desalination plant. The plant promises to deliver up to 0.25 m3/hour of potable water from seawater with a salinity of about 38,000 ppm and the osmotic pressure of 26.4bar.In the current paper, ROSA Software by Dow chemical company was used to establish suitable membrane unit at this capacity. A unit of 4 inch of SW30-4040, with a feed pressure of 48 bar, and a salt recovery (R) of 20% with total dissolved solids (TDS) of 190ppm was selected.Also results showed that, the electrical consumption of the SWRO plant was 2500 W, and the specific energy consumption was 10 kWh/m3. The size of the selected stand-alone photovoltaic (PV) system to power a SWRO plant with a mean production capacity of 1.5m³/day (6 hours operating per day), is 48V nominal voltage, 72 PV modules (shell SQ85-P), and 16 batteries with the capacity of 383Amp-Hour each.