MED seawater desalination using a low-grade solar heat source

Combining low-grade solar heat source and polymer materials allows seawater desalination while fossil fuels are saved and use of chemicals against fouling and corrosion is reduced. SOLar Multi-Effect Desalination (SOLMED) project meets recommendations of the US National Research Council, Middle East Desalination Research Center of Oman and Australian Desalination research roadmap regarding the future of desalination. Water cost reduction and development of technologies with low environmental impact are the main guidelines of SOLMED. Low-temperature multi-effect distillation (LT-MED) is well known to be the most efficient distillation process. Coupling LT-MED with a solar heat source downstream of a CSP power plant allows to benefiting of a low marginal cost heat source. This paper presents the advancement of SOLMED project in which a full-polymer material MED desalination prototype is developed to be used with a low-temperature heat source. Operation and coupling parameters are calculated in order to minimize electricity and water total production cost.