Solar membrane distillation: A control perspective

This paper presents a preliminary architecture for controlling solar membrane distillation facilities. Membrane distillation (MD) is a desalination technology under investigation, without industrial applications and with only few pilot systems. There is a general lack of information on how these systems perform during real solar-powered operation and how distillate quality deteriorates under intermittent conditions. One of the few systems that have been fully described in literature is the MD-solar pilot plant in Plataforma Solar de Almería (PSA), Spain. This paper presents a first step towards an optimal automatic operation of this system through the definition of operation modes and basic control loops. A discussion of control schemes to be implemented in the near future is also included in this work.