Desalination 277 (2011) 274280

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Desalination
j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s ev i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / d e s a l

Wind energy technologies integrated with desalination systems: Review and state-of-the-art
Qingfen Ma a,, Hui Lu b
a b

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hainan University, Danzhou, 571737, China Institute of Environment and Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agriculture Sciences, Danzhou, 571737, China

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
Throughout the world, desalination is intensively used as a means to reduce current or future water scarcity, especially for the coastal areas. However, the dramatic increase in desalinated water supply will create a series of problems, the most signicant of which are those related to energy consumption and environment impacts. Renewable energy provides an energy security and environmental friendly option simultaneously when decreasing global reserves of fossil fuels threatens the long-term sustainability of global economy. Thus, the integration of renewable resources in desalination and water purication is becoming increasingly attractive. In this paper an attempt has been made to present a review, in brief, work of the highlights that have been achieved during the recent years worldwide and the state-of-the-art for most important efforts in the eld of desalination by wind energy, which is one of the most common form of renewable energies. The wind energy transform patterns, modeling and experimental studies of various wind energy powered desalination plant, and the prototypes established worldwide are majorly discussed. Moreover, two important technological problems in wind utilization are discussed, and the present or potential countermeasures for the intermittent characteristic and direct utilization of wind energy are presented. Crown Copyright 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 13 January 2011 Received in revised form 11 April 2011 Accepted 14 April 2011 Available online 6 May 2011 Keywords: Renewable energy Wind energy Seawater and brackish water Desalination

1. Introduction Water and energy are two inseparable items that govern our lives and promote civilization. The social and economic health of the modern world depends on sustainable supply of both energy and water. As of today, about three billion people have no access to a secure source of fresh water and about 1.76 billion people live in areas already facing a high degree of lacking water [1]. Meanwhile, with the increase of population, industrial and agricultural activities, available water resources has been excessively exploited and severely polluted. The need for fresh water is at the top of the international agenda of critical problems, at least as rmly as climate change. Because of the growing scarcity of freshwater, a trend to intensied use of desalination as a means to reduce current or future water scarcity can be observed. Seawater or brackish water can be desalted and supplied in large quantity, but this will create a severer series of problems, the most signicant of which are those related to energy consumption and environment impacts. If desalination is accomplished by conventional technology, it will require the burning of substantial quantities of fossil fuels, which will aggravate the energy crisis worldwide and environment pollution. The particular environmental impact in desalination system is not well known yet, many

Corresponding author. Tel.: + 86 898 31132006. E-mail address: mqf0920@gmail.com (Q. Ma).

environmental studies related with desalination technologies are being conducted [2]. Renewable energy provides a variable and environmental friendly option and national energy security at a time when decreasing global reserves of fossil fuels threatens the long-term sustainability of global economy. The integration of renewable resources in desalination and water purication is becoming increasingly attractive. However, at present, total worldwide renewable desalination installations amount to capacities is less than 1% of that of conventional fossil fuel desalination plants [3]. This is due mainly to the high capital and maintenance costs required by renewable energy, making these desalination plants noncompetitive with conventional fuel desalination plants. However, the cost of renewable energy systems has been signicantly reduced during the last decades. Therefore, future reductions as well as the rise of fossil fuel prices could make possible the competitiveness of seawater or brackish water desalination driven by renewable energies. Solar thermal and photovoltaic (PV) systems, wind power, biomass, oceanic, geothermal and nuclear energy etc. are the basic kinds of renewable energy used nowadays. Among above renewable energies, wind energy has been maturely used for power production and wind turbines are commercially available on a wide range of nominal power. The electrical or mechanical power generated by a wind turbine can be used to drive desalination plants. The wind powered desalination systems are one of the most frequent renewable desalination plants, especially for coastal areas presenting

0011-9164/$ see front matter. Crown Copyright 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.desal.2011.04.041

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a high availability of wind energy resources [4]. In addition, according to some authors, among the various renewable energy resources, the integration of desalination with wind energy had the least impact on the environment, with an important environmental impact reduction of 75% [5]. Thus, in high wind-potential areas where desalination is also required, wind energy is the preferred energy source option. In this paper, the status and development of coupling wind energy systems with desalination units are reviewed. The following discussion concentrates on the main wind-driven desalination models and experiments as well as prototypes and implementations, aiming to trace the development process and the problems arising, and light up their perspective characteristics and trends. 2. Matching wind energies with desalination units 2.1. Desalination technologies Currently available desalination technologies can be mainly categorized into two groups: (1) Thermal desalination (phase change process) that involves heating the feed (seawater, brackish water or other impaired water) to boiling point at the operating pressure to produce steam, and condensing the steam in a condenser unit to produce freshwater. Thermal desalination process includes multi-stage ash (MSF), multi-effect distillation (MED), mechanical/thermal vapor compression (MVC/TVC), membrane distillation (MD) and solar distillation (SD). (2) Membrane desalination (non-phase change process) that involves separation of dissolved salts from the feed waters by mechanical or chemical/electrical means using a membrane barrier between the feed (seawater or brackish water) and product (potable water). In the membrane desalination, the reverse osmosis (RO) and electro-dialysis (ED) are technologies used frequently. The dominant desalination processes are MSF and RO44% and 42% of world wide capacity, respectively. The MSF represents more than 93% of the thermal process production, while RO process more than 88% of membrane process production [4]. 2.2. The coupling interface between wind energy and desalination unit Wind energy and desalination plants are two different technologies, which can be coupled in various ways. The interface between the wind energy system and the desalination system is met at the place/ subsystem where the energy generated by wind energy is promoted to

the desalination plant. Considering that the energy requirements for desalination continues to be a highly inuential factor in system costs, the integration of renewable energy systems with desalination seems to be a natural and strategic coupling of technologies. Currently, wind energy can power desalination plants directly or indirectly through four types of energy media: electricity, thermal energy, gravitational potential energy and kinematical power (shaft power). Fig. 1 shows the existing interfaces between wind energy and desalination unit which can be found in the following discussions. Electricity is the most commonly used energy form as the interface between wind energy and desalination process. After having changed into electricity, the energy from wind plant can be employed to drive desalination processes such as green house, RO, ED and MVC [69]. The wind plant can be on or off the grid. For the intermittent characteristic of wind power, usually backup facilities like battery, water tank, ywheel system might be integrated into the system to store or release energy when the wind speed exceeds or cannot achieve the required value. The technique of direct conversion from wind energy to thermal energy has been studied for room heating and hot-water supply systems because the efciency of direct wind-thermal conversion is higher than that of wind-electricity conversion and their structures are simpler. Nakatake and Tanaka proposed a newly designed, maritime lifesaving small distiller. The wind energy was directly converted to frictional thermal energy to heat the distiller. The proposed distiller could be driven by wind only and was predicted to produce 1.5 kg/d or more when a 6 m/s wind blew steadily all day on a sunny or cloudy day [10]. To reduce the energy loss caused by the wind-electricity conversion, gravitational energy has also been used as the interface between wind energy and desalination process. Fadigas and Dias designed an alternative conguration to conventional RO desalination systems by incorporating the use of gravitational potential energy, without using either electricity or fossil fuels. The gravitational potential energy, presented by water stored in a reservoir above a certain height, was converted by wind energy from windmills (or wind turbines) [11]. Besides, interesting experimental research about directly coupling the kinematical power from wind turbines and a desalination unit has been carried out. Projects AERODESA I and AERODESA II of Canary Islands Technological Institute included the direct coupling of wind energy and RO unit by means of shaft power [4]. In Coconut Island off the northern coast of Oahu, Hawaii, a brackish water desalination wind-powered RO plant was established. The system was driven directly by the shaft power of a windmill using a high pressure pump. The water production rate can be maintained at 13 l/min for wind

Fig. 1. Existing interfaces between wind energy and desalination unit.

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Fig. 2. Breakdown of renewable energy powered desalination system technologies implemented worldwide [19].

speed of 5 m/s [12]. Witte et al. proposed WindDeSalter Technology and analyzed its feasibility by calculation. The core of this technology was using the substantial part of the available kinematical energy from a WEC (wind energy converter) directly to drive the compressor of an MVC plant or the high-pressure pump of a RO plant. The WEC was also integrated with all necessary functional elements such as seawater reservoir, ltering installation, pump units, desalination units, compressor, heat exchanger and drinking water storage tank [13]. 3. Wind + desalination units 3.1. Wind + RO Reverse osmosis (RO) is a pressure-driven process that separates two solutions with different concentrations across a semi-permeable membrane [14]. RO system major components include membrane modules, high-pressure pumps, power plant, and energy recovery devices as needed. RO is one of the most efcient desalination technologies, requiring about 310 kWh of electric energy per m3 of freshwater produced from seawater [15]. Since RO is the desalination process with the lowest energy requirements and coastal areas present a high availability of wind power resources, according to some authors, wind powered RO plants appear to be one of the most promising alternatives of renewable energy desalination [1618]. Fig. 2 [19] shows a breakdown of renewable energy powered desalination system technologies implemented worldwide. The most common wind powered water treatment systems in the past were RO and windpowered RO systems made up approximately 19% of total RES desalination facilities, second only to photovoltaic-powered RO units (32%). 3.1.1. Feasible and economic evaluation Several simulation studies have been done to discuss the feasibility of wind powered RO technologies, based on various models with different emphases. Feron was among the rst to evaluate the economic feasibility of a wind-powered RO plant by mathematical modeling analysis under some assumptions. The author concluded that the economic use of a wind-powered RO plant might be restricted to areas with high wind speeds and fuel prices. However, it could become more economic because of current developments such as decreasing RO plant costs and wind turbine cost, and steady or increasing fuel costs [20]. Later, Habali and Saleh conducted a cost analysis of a wind-assisted RO system for desalinating brackish groundwater in Jordan. The authors stated that it would cost less to desalinate brackish water with

a wind-assisted RO system than with a conventional diesel-powered system [21]. Kiranoudis et al. performed a detailed analysis of a windpowered RO plant. Not only different wind turbines and membranes were analyzed, but also seawater and brackish water feed were considered. Moreover, generalized design curves for process structural and operational parameters were derived [22]. Voivontas et al. developed a method to evaluate the potential market for RES (renewable energy resources) powered desalination systems. The results showed that Aegean Islands were the most arid areas in Greece, with abundant wind energy. Thus most windpowered RO desalination plants could operate economically in most of the arid Aegean Islands [23]. They also explored a computer-aided design tool as a means to compare the alternative options on the basis of economic indicators, combining technologies that guarantee the desalination energy needs. Using the model, the effects of critical design parameters on the water selling price were analyzed for a wind-powered RO plant [24]. Garca-Rodriguez et al. analyzed the inuence of the main parameters on the cost of fresh water: climatic conditions, nominal power of the wind turbine, salt concentration of seawater or brackish water, design arrangement, operating conditions, plant capacity, cost of RO modules and cost of wind turbines [16]. Romero-Ternero et al. [25] quantied the unit cost of fresh water generated from representative wind-powered seawater RO system as well as the exergy efciency of the process by means of thermoeconomy. The unit cost of freshwater was determined exclusively by considering a wind-powered desalination system. The exergoeconomic analysis showed that the wind-driven seawater RO desalination was cost-effective for the representative wind power site with medium plant capacity and the unit cost of freshwater was 76 c/m3 [25]. In the past ve years, with the rapid development of both wind energy and RO technologies and the increasing aggravation of the conventional energy crisis, feasibility and economic analyses of wind powered RO plant appear to be more important to assist the design, site selection, water production, and cost/price estimation etc. Koklas and Papathanassiou [26] proposed a logistic model to provide insight in the component selection criteria of an autonomous wind-driven RO plant. The simulation of the system operation was performed employing a variety of different congurations with respect to the size of its main components (wind turbine, RO plant and batteries). For each case, the annual water production was calculated, an economic assessment performed and the water production cost estimated [26]. Forstmeier et al. [18] developed physics-based system models to conrm the technical feasibility of using wind as the power source for desalination, including both RO and MVC units. The results showed that the costs were in line with what was expected for a conventional desalination system, proving to be particularly cost-competitive in areas with good wind resources that had high costs of energy. Thus wind-powered desalination could be competitive with other desalination systems, providing safe and clean drinking water efciently in an environmentally responsible manner [18]. An integrated model incorporated in the REDDES software for the use of renewable energies (wind, solar) in the desalination of seawater was developed by Koroneos et al. [27]. The desalination technologies (mainly RO and MVC) were coupled with RES power systems to produce potable water at the lower possible cost. The results indicated that water production costs of an RES-desalination conguration depended heavily on the available RES potential. The greater the RES potential the smaller the energy production cost from the RES unit and thus smaller water production cost from the desalination unit. Spyrou and Anagnostopoulos [28] proposed a RO desalination unit powered by wind and solar electricity production systems and by a pumped storage unit. A specic computer algorithm was developed to simulate the entire plant operation and perform economic evaluation of the investment. Design optimization studies of the plant for various

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objectives were conducted, like the minimization of fresh water production cost or the maximization of water need satisfaction [28]. Koutroulis and Kolokotsa [29] presented a methodology for the optimal sizing of PV modules and wind-generator powered RO systems. Among a list of commercially available system devices, the optimal number and type of units were determined so that the 20-year round total system cost was minimized, while simultaneously the consumer's water demand was completely covered. The corresponding optimal sizing results indicated that the total cost of the RO system was highly affected by the operational characteristics of the devices comprising the system [29]. Bourouni et al. [30] proposed a new model based on the Genetic Algorithms allowing the generation of several individuals (possible solutions) for coupling small RO unit to RES to minimize the total water cost. A particular interest was focused on the hybrid systems (PV/WIND/Batteries/RO), and a case of PV/RO unit, installed since 2007 in Ksar Ghilne village of southern Tunisia was studied [30]. 3.1.2. Prototypes and installations The prototypes of wind-powered RO desalination system have been reported in many regions of the world and a range of experiments has been conducted with various concentrations. So far, most of these installations, either connected to a utility network or operating in a stand-alone mode, have been installed in Europe. In France, as early as 1982, a small system was set at Ile du Planier. It was a 4 kW turbine coupled RO desalination unit with production rate of 0.5 m3/h. The system also was designed to operate via batteries [31]. Another case where wind energy and RO was combined is that of the Island of Drence in 1990. The wind turbine, rated at 10 kW, was used to drive a seawater RO unit [32]. A very interesting experience was gained at a test facility in Lastours, where a 5 kW wind turbine provided energy to a number of batteries (1500 Ah, 24 V) and via an inverter to an RO unit with a nominal power of 1.8 kW. In Spain, the desalination leader of Europe [33], a pilot windpowered RO plant was installed at Canary Island, in 1984. It was connected to the grid as auxiliary energy when the wind power was not enough for plant operation, with production rate of 200 m3/d and energy consumption of 5 kWh/m3 [34]. In 1993, a 56 m3/d hybrid diesel-wind-RO plant providing fresh water and electricity for local people and a battery-less wind-RO plant started operating at Pjara, Fuerteventura Island. The system consists of two diesel engines and a wind turbine of 225 kW. The Canary Islands Technological Institute developed the concept AEROGEDESA based on the long-term experience accumulated at Canary Islands, referring to a compact, stand-alone wind-RO system with capacities between 5 and 50 m3/d [35]. A wind/RO system without energy storage was developed and tested within the JOULE Program in 2001 by the University of Las Palmas. The RO unit had a capacity of 43113 m3/h, and the W/G had a nominal power of 30 kW [17]. Recently, experience of a seawater RO plant with capacities of 5000 m3/d in Gran Canaria, Canary Islands has been reported. The power produced by the wind generators was variable throughout the year; at times excess power was sold to the conventional power network in place, and sometimes the RO plant consumed supplementary power from the network grid [36]. Additionally, a 500 l/h seawater RO unit driven by a 2.5 kW wind generator without batteries was developed and tested by the Centre for Renewable Energy Systems Technology (CREST) UK. The system operated at variable ow, enabling it to make efcient use of the naturally varying wind resource, without need of batteries [7]. Excellent work on wind/RO systems has been done by ITC within several projects such as AERODESA, SDAWES and AEROGEDESA [37]. A great job on the combination of wind/RO has also been done by ENERCON, the German wind turbine manufacturer. ENERCON provides modular and energy-efcient RO desalination systems driven by wind turbines (grid-connected or standalone systems) for brackish and seawater desalination. Market-available desalination units from

ENERCON range from 175 to 1400 m3/d for seawater desalination and 350 to 2500 m3/d for brackish water desalination. These units combine with other system components, such as synchronous machines, ywheels, batteries and diesel generator, supply and store energy and water precisely according to demand [38]. Other wind-driven RO systems in Europe are as follows: A RO system driven by a wind power plant, in Island of the County Split and Dalmatia [39]; Island of Suderoog (North Sea), with 69 m3/d [40]; Island of Helgoland, Germany, with 2 480 m3/d [40]; Island of St. Nicolas, West France, hybrid wind-diesel [40]; Island of Drenec, France, with wind energy converter of 10 kW [40]; Ile du Planier, France Pacic Islands, with production rate of 0.5 m3/h [40]. Except Europe, engineers of other regions of the world have also made efforts to install and test the wind-RO desalination units. In 1986, the installation of a RO plant in the Middle East began. It was a 25 m3/d plant connected to a hybrid wind-diesel system [41]. When a second RO plant of 168 m3/d was commissioned by the Water Authority of Western Australia, at Denham in Shark Bay, in 1991, the power requirements exceeded the diesel grid's capacity and a supplementary 30 kW West wind turbine was installed to power the plants. Being grid connected, the plant imported power when required and exported power back to the grid when excess power was generated [42]. In Coconut Island off the northern coast of Oahu, Hawaii, a brackish water desalination wind-powered RO plant was installed. The system was using directly the shaft power production of a windmill with the high pressure pump and RO. In particular a constant fresh water production of 13 l/min can be maintained for wind speed of 5 m/s [12].

3.2. Wind + MVC Although mechanic vapor compression (MVC) consumes more energy than RO, it presents fewer problems due to the uctuations of the energy resource than RO. MVC systems are more suitable for remote areas since they are more robust, and they need fewer skilled workers and fewer chemicals than RO systems. In addition, they need no membrane replacement and offer a better quality product than RO. In case of contaminated waters, the distillation ensures the absence of microorganisms in the product. Few applications have been implemented using wind energy to drive a mechanical vapor compression unit. A pilot plant was installed in 1991 at Borkum Island (Germany), where a wind turbine with a nominal power of 45 kW was coupled to a 48 m3/d MVC evaporator, with a 36 kW compressor [43]. The experience was followed in 1995 by another larger plant at the Rgen Island, in Baltic Sea, with a capacity of 360 m3/d and wind energy production capacity of 300 kW [44]. Additionally, a 50 m3/d wind MVC plant was installed by Instituto Tecnologico de Canarias (ITC) in Gran Canaria, Spain, within the Sea Desalination Autonomous Wind Energy System (SDAWES) project [45]. The wind farm was composed of two 230 kW wind turbines, a 1500 rpm ywheel coupled to a 100 kVA synchronous machine, an isolation transformer located in a specic building, and a 7.5 kW uninterruptible power supply located in the control dome. A detailed analysis of the inuence of the main parameters of wind powered MVC systems was performed by Karameldin et al [46]. The study indicated that the operating evaporator temperature and temperature difference recommended were 50 C and 3 C respectively. Under the average prevailing wind speed in these areas, the system productivities were 203, 398 and 938 m3/d when the wind turbine diameters were 20, 28 and 43 m respectively [46].

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3.3. Wind + ED Finally, ED process is interesting for brackish water desalination since it is able to adapt to changes of available wind power and it is more suitable for remote areas than RO. Modeling and experimental results of on-grid tests of installed such system at the ITC, Gran Canaria, Spain was presented by Veza et al. The main goal of this project was to test and identify the most suitable desalination systems for connection to the medium off-grid wind farm. The capacity range of this plant was 19272 m3/d [47]. Later, they developed an operational envelope for the electrodialysis reversal unit, off-grid, i.e., only coupled to the wind farm. The desalination unit showed good exibility, adapting smoothly to variations in wind power, even when sudden drops or rises occurred [48]. 4. Challenges and emerging/potential countermeasures to the utilization of wind energy in desalination process 4.1. Intermittent characteristic and emerging countermeasures Since the intermittent characteristic of wind energy, the desalination system driven by completely wind energy is affected by power variations and interruptions. The power variations, however, have an adverse effect on the performance and component life of certain desalination equipment. Hence, back-up systems might be integrated into the system to reduce the effect. Meanwhile, there is also another solution, to integrate wind energy with other energy source, either conventional or renewable energy, such as solar PV or thermal, diesel [49], etc. 4.1.1. Integration wind energy with other energy source The complementary features of wind and solar resources make the use of hybrid wind-solar systems to drive a desalination unit a possible alternative. Solar energy desalination is generally the collecting of solar thermal energy that is used for desalination directly in solar stills, or that is converted to electricity by photovoltaic (PV) process rst and then used in either thermal of membrane processes for desalinations [50,51]. 4.1.1.1. Wind/PV hybrid system. As early as 1979, Petersen et al. reported two RO-desalination plants with the GKSS-Research Centre (Germany) plate module system supplied by a 6 kW wind energy converter and a 2.5 kW solar generator for remote areas [52]. Later, they reported another two such prototypes which were installed in the Northern part of Mexico (Concepcin del Oro) and in a small island at the German coast of the North Sea (Soderoog) [53]. The Cadarache Centre (France) designed another unit that was installed in 1980 at Borj Cedra (Tunisia). The system consisted of a 0.1 m3/d compact solar distiller, a 0.25 m3/h RO plant and an ED plant for 4 g/l brackish water. The energetic system consisted of a photovoltaic eld of 4 kW peak and two wind turbines [31]. Test results of a PV/wind powered brackish water RO plant installed in Israel were reported by Weiner et al [54]. Its production was 3 m3/d and expected life-span was 15 years. Two-day battery storage and a diesel generator were built to serve as the back-up of the system. The test results showed that the optimum ratio between the power of a desalination unit and PV/wind peak power was of the order of 3050% [54]. Kershman et al. presented a hybrid wind/PV powered RO desalination plant implemented on Libya's coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The nominal production of the plant was intended to be 300 m3/d to supply a village with potable water. While the expected nominal power load for the operation of the RO desalination system was 70 kW (net power after recovery), the solar PV system was designed for 50 kW, and the WEC for 200 kW nominal outputs. The facility

design was exible for the integration of a diesel generator and electrochemical storage [55,56]. Except for the existing desalination plants, some novel ideas or analyses for wind/PV hybrid systems have also been made. Mohamed et al. developed a simplied method for sizing and simulating a hybrid wind-PV powered RO desalination unit based on a techno-economic analysis. The water production cost calculated (5.21 /m3) was very promising compared to the water transportation cost by tankers in some Greek islands that can reach 612 /m3, far below transportation cost of 20 /m3 in Algeria [57,58]. Gilau and Small analyzed the cost-effectiveness of a stand alone small-scale renewable energypowered seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) system for developing countries by a new methodology and an energy optimization model. Applying the model, using the wind and solar radiation conditions for Eritrea, East Africa, they computed that for a two-stage SWRO system with a capacity of 35 m3/day, the specic energy consumption was about 2.33 kW h/m3, which was a lower value than that achieved in most of the previous designs [59]. 4.1.1.2. Wind/solar thermal hybrid system. Recently, wind energy has been attached with the solar still to power the desalination process together with solar energy. Mohamed and Zhao [60] designed, fabricated and evaluated a new hybrid desalination system that constituted of wind turbine and inclined solar water distillation integrated with main solar still. A small wind turbine was used to operate a rotating shaft tted in the main solar still to break boundary layer of the basin water surface. The system can produce distilled and hot water. It was estimated that the electricity annual savings was 192.22 RMB/kWh/m2, and the quality of distilled water as well as hot remaining water was good enough for domestic usage [60]. Moreover, wind and solar thermal can also be combined together to drive the thermal desalination process. Fernndez-Lpez et al. [61] analyzed an integrated desalination scheme consisting of two sequential systems: a MED plant and a MVC system based on evaporator equipment. The MED stage was driven by thermal solar collector, whereas the energy consumption of MVC was fuelled by wind-powered turbines. The nal products were dry salt and fresh water, with the desalted water production of 100 m3/h and the price of 0.59 /m3 [61]. 4.1.1.3. Wind/multi-renewable energy hybrid system. Regarding to other renewable sources combined with wind energy, an interesting designa oating island was proposed by Stuyfzand and Kappelhof [62], although no such plant was implemented [63]. The plant was an articial, oating island 10100 km from the shore, 0.060.65 km2 in size with hexagonal shape, 0.11 km in diameter and 20 m deep. RO unit was driven by a combination of renewable energy sources including wind, solar, tidal, wave and hydrothermal gradient. A storage reservoir aboard was used for stabilization and coping with uctuations in energy supply and water demand. The plant was estimated to produce high-quality fresh water of 5500 Mm3/year at a cost of 0.881.32 /m3. 4.1.2. Exploitation of wind-suited desalination unit The disconnect relationship between the variable power production of wind and the need for consistent energy input for most desalination systems is important to improve the efciency of wind-powered desalination units. If desalination units could be designed to respond effectively to variable energy input, i.e., the desalination units would operate at variable capacities based on the available wind, there is no need of backup energy storage or integration with other energy sources. A company based in Germany, ENERCON GmbH, has addressed this specic limitation of RO technology. As a company focused primarily on wind energy products, ENERCON's operations have expanded to include desalination technologies. They have developed an RO technology that involves a piston system used for energy recovery that also enables

Q. Ma, H. Lu / Desalination 277 (2011) 274280 Table 1 Basic information about some wind-driven desalination applications. Plant location Ile du Planier, France Canary Island, Spain Island of Drence, France Pjara, Fuerteventura Island, Spain Denham, Shark Bay, Australia Borkum Island, Germany Rgen Island, Germany Gran Canaria, Spain Water type SW/BW SW SW SW BW SW SW SW Desalination unit, capacity RO, 0.5 m3/h RO, 200 m3/d RO, RO, 56 m3/d RO, 130 m3/d MVC, 48 m3/d MVC, 360 m3/d RO, 200 m3/d MVC, 50 m3/d ED, 72192 m3/d RO, 2.7 l/min RO, 5000 m3/d RO, 500 l/h RO, 1751400 m3/d (SW); 3502500 m3/d (BW) W/T Nominal power 4.0 kW 42 kW 10 kW 225 kW 30 kW 45 kW 360 kW 460 kW Commissioning year 1982 1984 1990 1991 1991 1991 1995 1999 Unit water cost; energy consumption 5.0 kWh/m3

279

12.5 cent $/kWh 2.1 kWh/m3 RO, 7.5 kWh/m3 MVC, 14.4 kWh/m3 ED, 2.4 kWh/m3 19.865 cent /m3; 2.9 kWh/m3 2.6 $/m3 22.25 kWh/m3

Coconut Island, Hawaii Canary Island, Spain CREST, UK ENERCON, Germany

BW SW SW SW/BW

1.2 kW 2.64 MW 2.5 kW 200 kW

1999 2002 2004 2006

Note: SW: Seawater; BW: Brackish water.

variable levels of energy input. ENERCON plants have no xed operating point and the water production can range from max. 12.5% to 100% of the nominal capacity by adjusting the piston speed according to demand. This has two main advantages: rstly, operation is possible with a uctuating energy supply, and secondly, output can be adjusted exibly to water demand without shutting down the plant [38]. 4.2. The potential of direct utilization of wind energy The technologies have been developed to some extent to integrate wind energy directly or indirectly to the desalination process such as RO, MVC, ED and solar still. Although RO is the major desalination process connected to wind power, it is not always the appropriate one. For the remote areas which are short of fresh water but abundant of wind energy and seawater, more robust, easily operated wind powered desalination system should be explored. Considering environment protection, the system needs to discharge fewer chemicals and offer high quality fresh water but not the proper water from RO unit. Thus, in the long term, thermal desalination units directly powered by wind power are more attractive due to their little impact on environment, high quality of treated water and energy saving feature. So far, MVC is the major thermal desalination process integrated with wind. However, due to the higher operation temperature (compared to the seawater temperature), additional heat source is always necessary. In the single wind powered desalination systems, the transformation of wind energy to heat must reduce the energy utilizing efciency. Therefore, if the wind powered desalination unit can operate at lower temperature, eliminating the transformation from wind energy to heat, the desalination cost and energy utilizing efciency might be improved. From this point of view, two potential developments of wind-desalination system are suggested by authors as follows: The humidicationdehumidication process presents several attractive features which are proper for the wind power, including modest level of technology employed, simplicity of design, relatively high efciency compared to other thermal processes, and, most of all, the ability to combine with low temperature renewable energy source. Thus, it is of great importance to work further on problems related to the coupling interface of wind energy and desalination unit, design and optimization of operational and structural parameters, and cost evaluation systems as well. Vacuum distillation might be another alternative as the desalination unit powered by wind energy. In the process of vacuum distillation, the phase changes at low temperature, which makes the extra

thermal source unnecessary. In addition, the wind power can drive the equipments such as vacuum pumps and compressor directly, avoiding the energy loss caused by energy conversion process. Thus, this kind of system might increase the usage efciency of wind energy, and further research should focus on system design, parameter optimization and feasibility analysis, etc. 5. Conclusions The use of wind energy for desalination appears nowadays as a reasonable and technically mature option towards the emerging and stressing energy and water problems. In spite of intensive research worldwide, the actual penetration of wind-powered desalination installations is still low. During the recent past, there has been a rather intense attempt to develop effective small or medium scale desalination plants, mainly powered by wind energy. The technologies have been developed to some extent to integrate wind energy directly or indirectly to the desalination process such as RO, MVC, ED and solar still. So far, RO is the major desalination process connected to wind power and MVC is the major thermal desalination process powered by wind. The basic information of major desalination prototypes or plants mentioned in this paper is concluded in Table 1. Through these activities, considerable experience has been gained. Similar to other renewable energies, overcoming the intermittent characteristic and improving the energy utilizing efciency of wind energy are two important technological problems in the present or future research. At present, the solutions for the intermittent characteristic of wind energy are mainly integrating the wind energy with other kind of energy and designing exible desalination unit to t the variation of wind. As to the improvement of the energy utilizing efciency of wind energy, the authors has pointed out two potential kinds of wind-powered desalination units, possibly utilizing the wind energy directly with less energy loss. Acknowledgement The nancial supports by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51009044), Scientic Research Fund of Hainan Provincial Education Department (Hjkj2011-05) and Start-up Fund Project of Hainan University (kyqd1106) are gratefully acknowledged. References
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