EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS OF AQUASOL PROJECT:

DEVELOPMENT OF AN ADVANCED HYBRID SOLAR-GAS

MULTI-EFFECT DISTILLATION SYSTEM
Diego Alarcn, Julin Blanco, Ana Lozano, Sixto Malato, Manuel I. Maldonado, Pilar
Fernndez
Environmental Applications of Solar Energy and Characterization of Solar Radiation
CIEMAT-Plataforma Solar de Almera. P.O. Box 22, E-04200 Tabernas, Almera, SPAIN.
Tel.: +34 950387960, Fax: +34 950365015, E-mail: diego.alarcon@psa.es
Abstract
Main objective of R&D AQUASOL Project has been the development of a zero-discharge,
improved cost and energy-efficient seawater desalination technology based on the multi-effect
distillation (MED) process. During the course of the demonstration phase, an advanced hybrid
solar/gas desalination system has been implemented at the Plataforma Solar de Almera
installations, in order to evaluate under real atmospheric conditions its reliability and energy
efficiency. This paper shows the first results obtained of the MED unit performance working
with a 500-m2 CPC solar collector field and the new double-effect absorption (H2O-LiBr)
heat pump, which has allowed a very important increase in the overall thermal efficiency of
the process.
Keywords: solar desalination, multi-effect distillation, absorption heat pump
-----------------------------------Introduction
In the year 2003 Mankind consumed 10723 Mtoe (million tons oil equivalent), of total
primary energy supply (TPES), [IEA, 2003] and, the same year, it was scheduled an scenario
of growth of 0.7% in the oil production until 2030 and then start to declining [1], realizing
that the oil era as dominant energy factor will be over in the medium term. Possible
alternative primary energy sources are also very problematic: nuclear energy in addition to the
strong popular contest in many parts of the World, has also limited fissionable uranium
reserved (in the long term) and the security concern (potential fabrication of weapons) of
many countries and coal has the problem of very high CO2 emissions and its repercussions
over climate change issue [2]. If this was the prospect in 2003, today many people would
agree that this forecast is even darker with the main conclusion that there is no solution to any
sustainable energy future without a strong participation of the renewables in general and the
solar energy in particular, due to its highest potential among all existing renewable energies
[3].
If the energy prospect is worrisome, much worst is the problematic related to water shortage.
Water is essential to all life and today more than 1 billion people lack access to safe drinking
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water, being unsafe water and poor sanitation the cause of 80 percent of all diseases in the
developing world, with more than 5 million deaths annually. Groundwater supplies about one
third of the worlds population with water tables falling, in some cases, by 1 to 3 meters a
year. If the present trend continues, two out of three people on Earth will live in water
stressed areas by 2025 [4]. The consequences of this analysis are very serious as the water
problem can not be effectively addressed without considering the energy implications and the
growth of human population: large additional amount of water will be needed within a few
decades which are not only unavailable from the existing renewable resources but also the
energy to produce it will not be easily available.
Desalination is, many times, not only an interesting option but the only feasible and practical
option as about 40 percent of world population lives in a 70 km strip from sea border [5]. In
2003, World installed desalination capacity was 37.75 hm3/day [6], being 64 percent of them
from seawater, with 10350 plants having a capacity higher than 100 m3/dia. Today, total
production of desalinated water could cover the necessities of a population of about 100
million people [7]. First desalination country is Saudi Arabia, followed by Arab Emirates,
United States of America and Spain.
Market studies (Global Water Intelligence) showed estimated investments of more than 30
billion US$ in new desalination plants worldwide in the period 2005-2015, 70 percent of
which would be of seawater. In the Mediterranean area, the estimated figure is 9.6 billion US$
(90 percent seawater). It is clear that the majority of these areas enjoy the availability of a
large amount of solar energy and, if the energy situation is also considered, the solar option to
drive desalination processes seems not only fully logical but, in the medium range, absolutely
necessary. Therefore, it is clear that scientific and technological developments will be needed;
this paper presents one of these developments.
The AQUASOL project
The AQUASOL project (Enhanced Zero Discharge Seawater Desalination using Hybrid
Solar Technology), was the continuation of a large previous research of solar desalination
carried out at Plataforma Solar de Almera [8, 9], widely described in many previous papers
[10]. The project (2002-2006) was financed by the European Commission and was
successfully carried out with the collaboration of the following partners:

Spain: CIEMAT, INABENSA, CAJAMAR, Comunidad de Regantes Cuatro Vegas

Portugal: INETI, AO SOL Energias Renovveis

Greece: Hellenic Saltworks, National Technical University of Athens

France: WEIR Entropie

The project was focused in the technological development of specific technological aspects
that are expected to significantly improve the present techno-economic efficiency of solar
MED systems and therefore, reduce the cost of water production. To this objective the
following main subsystem were modified (MED plant) or designed and erected (all others):

A multi-effect distillation plant (14 effects, 3 m3/h nominal distillate production)

A stationary CPC (Compound Parabolic Concentrator) solar collector field

A thermal storage system based on water (total volume: 24 m3)

A double-effect (LiBr-H2O) absorption heat pump

A smoke-tube gas boiler

An advanced solar dryer for final treatment of the brine (not installed at PSA)

Figure 1. Conceptual layout and main subsystems of AQUASOL plant

Figure 1 shows the configuration and interconnection of these main subsystems. The overall
system was designed to make feasible the following three desalination operating modes
depending on where the desalination unit energy supply comes from:

Solar-only mode: energy to the first distillation effect comes exclusively from thermal
energy from the solar collector field.

Fossil-only mode: the double-effect absorption heat pump (DEAHP) supplies all of the
heat required by the distillation plant.

Hybrid mode: the energy comes from both the heat pump and the solar field. Two
different operating philosophies were here initially considered:
-

The heat pump works continuously 24 hours a day with a 30% minimum
contribution.

Start-up and shutdown of the pump when requested, depending on the availability
of the solar resource.

Solar-only experiments
Solar energy is collected by the solar field constituted by 252 stationary solar collectors (CPC
Ao Sol 1.12x) with a total surface of 498.96 m2 arranged in four rows of 63 collectors each;
3

Collectors inclination is 35 degrees and are arranged in reverse feeding mode to achieve equal
distribution of total flow rate (14.97 m3/h, nominal) into the 4 rows (3.74 m3/h, each) without
further regulation. Technical specifications of the collector field were previously described
[11].
Experimental procedure was the following: once a defined threshold (of about 300 W/m2) of
solar radiation was available, the solar field pump was connected and water from the bottom
of secondary water tank was recirculated throughout the solar field heating the piping and
collector water volume. This scheme is maintained until the outlet temperature from solar
field is 8 degrees higher than the one at the bottom of secondary tank (inlet solar field
temperature). At this moment the water is transferred to the upper part of the primary tank
(see Fig. 1). Solar field main pump is stopped when the outlet temperature is only 2 to 4
degrees higher than the inlet one. During normal operation the flow rate through the solar
collector field is continuously modified (using a frequency variator to drive the pump) to the
achievement of a T (Toutput Tinput) of about 10 C to efficiency maximization.
900

900

800

800

700

700

600

600

500

500

Solar power incident over

collector field (35 inclination)

400

400

300

300

200

200

Power delivered by solar collector

field to the thermal storage system

100

0
7:00

Global Solar Radiation (W/m2)

Power (kW)

Solar global radiation measured

over horizontal plane (W/m2)

100

0
8:00

9:00

10:00

11:00

12:00

13:00

14:00

15:00

16:00

17:00

18:00

19:00

Local Time (Almera, Spain)

Figure 2. Power delivered by solar collectors (test date: 08.03.2006)

Figure 2 shows the available solar radiation and the instantaneous power delivered by the
solar collector field to the thermal storage tanks, constituted by two interconnected 12 m3
capacity tanks, filled with 10 m3 of water each. This volume of 20 m3 provides the overall
system the needed time to switch from the solar-only mode to the fossil-only mode (30 min.
estimated to reach full nominal conditions in the heat pump, working at partial load in the
hybrid mode configuration) in case of a sudden change in solar irradiation conditions. The
reasons to use two tanks, instead of just one, are, firstly, to increase the yearly contribution of
solar energy to the system due to the physical separation between hot and cold water at solar
mode start-up and, secondly, to guaranty a certain temperature stratification necessary to
avoid the heat pump water inlet temperature to exceed the permissible range (60 70 C).
Considering the whole experimental day showed in the Figure 2 (8th March 2006), a 48
4

percent of overall efficiency of the solar field collector (energy provided to thermal storage
tanks divided by the solar energy available) was calculated. Figure 3 shows the evolution of
middle temperature within the two thermal storage tanks.
100

1200

Global Solar Radiation over

tilted surface (35)

95

1000

85

Solar field outlet temperature

Temperature (C)

800
80

75

70

600

Solar field inlet temperature

400

65

Solar Radiation (W/m)

90

60
200
55

50
12:00

0
12:30

13:00

13:30

14:00

14:30

15:00

Local Time (Almera, Spain)

Figure 3. Solar field outlet and inlet temperature evolution. Test date: 08.03.2006
Finally, Figure 4 shows the distillate production of the MED plant and the global thermal
energy consumed. Distillate production achieved was higher than the nominal figure of 3 m3/h
(for PSA MED plant), with an average thermal energy input of 69.17 kWhth/m3. This figure
correspond with a constant inlet temperature in the first cell of MED plant of 71.5 C; if this
temperature is reduced to 68.5 C, the average energy needed is 67.8 kWhth/m3 (test of
09.03.2006). Standard thermal energy needed in conventional MED plants is in the range of
80 kWhth/m3 [12]. Electric power consumption is not considered in this analysis.
400

4
3

3.5

300

250

2.5

200

MED Power consumption (average value = 223.61 kW)

150

1.5

Consumed thermal energy / distillate production ratio: 69.17 kWh/m

100

50

Distillate production (m3/h)

Power (kW)

Distillate production (average value = 3.23 m /h)

350

0.5

Test Date: 08/03/2006

0
13:25

13:35

13:45

13:55

14:05

14:15

14:25

14:35

14:45

14:55

15:05

15:15

15:25

Local Time (Almera, Spain)

Figure 4. Solar-only mode. Distillate production and global thermal energy consumed by
AQUASOL plant
5

Fossil-only experiments
Main reason to include a fossil fuel subsystem to provide the energy needed to drive the
desalination process is the reduction of the amortization figure to minimize the existing gap
between solar and conventional costs of different seawater desalination processes. The hybrid
configuration makes possible the 24-hour operation without big and costly thermal storage
systems and, therefore, significantly reducing the weight of the capital cost in the final cost of
the distilled water.
Another reason is the possibility, throughout the inclusion of the double effect absorption heat
pump, to recover the energy usually lost in the last effect of the MED plant, increasing
significantly the overall efficiency of the plant. Finally, the hybrid concept makes possible the
combined system avoiding the problems of operation if the solar energy is not available. The
designing and construction of the heat pump with the possibility of working at partial load
enable the combined operation of both systems, always optimising the performance of the
overall system. Up to yet this hybrid mode has not been tested, so no operational results can
be presented here.
The concept of the double effect heat pump has been already described [9]. It increases the
energy efficiency of the distillation process by making use of the 35C saturated steam
produced in the last MED plant effect, which would otherwise involve the loss of the energy
(about 100 kW) in the evacuation of the cooling fluid used for its condensation, as the cold
focus. As the heat pump requires steam at 180 C a propane gas-fired system with a C-class
smoke tube boiler was installed to provide this input energy (Fig. 5). The gas to be burnt is
stored in a 2,450-liter tank providing an estimated autonomy of 143 hours at full load.

Figure 5. Double effect absorption heat pump (left) and smoke tube boiler (right)
designed and installed at AQUASOL plant
When the heat pump is working, observed distillate production is lower than the achieved
with the solar-only mode, due to the lower inlet temperature to the MED (about 63 C). The
net thermal energy consumed by the plant was 37.4 kWhth/m3, figure which would be 62.4
kWhth/m3 (average values) if the energy from the 14th effect were not recovered by the heat
pump (Figure 6).
6

350

3
3

Distillate production (Average value = 2.39 m /h)

300

2.5

Power (kW)

200

MED Input Power (Average value = 149.25 kW)

1.5

150
1

Distillate (m3/h)

250

100
DEAHP Input Power (Average value = 89.39 kW)

0.5

50
Test date: 10.04.2006
0
15:00

15:30

16:00

16:30

17:00

17:30

Local Time (Almera, Spain)

Figure 6. Fossil-only mode. Distillate production and global thermal energy consumed
by AQUASOL plant
System efficiencies
The most relevant indicator of the overall system efficiency is the Performance Ratio (PR) of
the plant, which indicates the kilograms of distilled water produced by each 2326 kJ of
thermal energy given to the first cell of MED plant (thermal energy required to evaporate 1 kg
of water at standard reference conditions of temperature and pressure). Figure 7 shows the PR
obtained in the solar-only mode.
12

Performance Ratio

10

Performance Ratio average value (from

13:00 until 15:46 hours): 9.29 kJ/kg
4

Test date: 08.03.2006

0
12:00

12:30

13:00

13:30

14:00

14:30

15:00

15:30

16:00

Local Time (Almera, Spain)

Figure 7. Performance Ratio of the AQUASOL plant in the solar-only mode

If the same analysis is carried out in the fossil-only mode, the data showed in Figure 8 are
obtained, where the PR of the system if the heat pump did not exist is also shown.
7

25

With DEAHP (Average value = 17.41 kJ/kg)

Performance ratio

20

15

10

Without DEAHP (Average value = 10.03 kJ/kg)

5

Test date: 10.04.2006

0
13:00

14:00

15:00

16:00

17:00

Local Time (Almera, Spain)

Figure 6. Performance Ratio of the AQUASOL plant in the fossil-only mode

Another interesting study related with the efficiency of the system is the analysis of the losses
of the thermal storage tanks. This can be made using the following formula:

th =

QMED + U1 + U 2
QSOLAR FIELD

Where QMED is the energy delivered to the first cell of MED plant, U1 is the variation of
internal energy of the primary tank, U2 is the variation of internal energy of the secondary
tank and QSOLAR FIELD is the energy collected by the CPC solar collector field. When this
calculation is made to the overall experiment of 8th of March 2006 (solar-only mode), a figure
of 3.5 percent of heat losses is obtained. When a similar approach is made to estimate the
thermal losses during the night, figures between 5 and 7 percent are achieved.
Discussion and conclusions
This paper shows the first experimental results obtained with the AQUASOL plant working in
the solar-only and gas-only modes. Plant specific consumption of thermal energy, in the solaronly mode, is in the range of 60 to 70 kWh per cubic meter of distillate produced; these
figures are reduced to 35 - 40 kWh/m3 when the heat pump is working (fossil-only mode).
One interesting observed indication is that this figure seems to decrease as decrease the inlet
temperature to the first cell of MED plant. This fact, if fully confirmed, would be very
interesting to coupling a MED plant with low temperature solar collectors, as the used CPCs,
because the efficiency and operation possibilities of the overall system could significantly be
increased. To this end, additional experiments will be made to identify the best working
conditions of the plant.
The thermal storage system is very efficient with reduced losses either in normal operation or
during the night; in addition, this subsystem permits a simple and very flexible operation of
8

the MED plant either with the solar collector field or with the gas and the double effect
absorption heat pump. The hybrid mode (combined solar and gas energy inputs) has not been
tested yet. This evaluation will be published in future papers.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank the European Commission (DG XII Research) for its financial
assistance within the Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development Programme
(AQUASOL Project; Contract Nr. EVK1-CT2001-00102).
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