太阳能海水淡化

1、江苏南京市一私营企业（名称没找到）进行一个太阳能海水淡化项目，项目主要内容是：淡水缺乏是全球所共同面对的无法体，以往的项目没有一个不是利用石化资源来实现海水淡化的。1。当前状况：产业化生产和市场推广2。每年全球市场约2亿美元3。市场增长率大于5％4。行业的领先

2、发明人：郭永博。发明名称：太阳能海水淡化棚。文摘：一种太阳能海水淡化棚，它包括日光透明棚罩、棚架和蒸发池，其特征是：通过棚架支撑带倾斜角度的日光透明棚罩，在日光透明棚罩的下部设置导流槽，导流槽有水流坡度，导流槽的最低处设置淡水出口，蒸发池的上方设置海水上水口，下方设置海水浓液排放口。利用太阳能进行海水淡化，节省电能，降低成本５０％以上，设备结构设计简化，生产工艺简单，能制成１ｍ↑［２］的小型便携式，用于旅游、野外作业等，５－２０ｍ↑［２］的中型固定式，用于家庭、小群体，５００－１０００ｍ↑［２］大型固定式，用于工厂化淡水生产兼制盐。既能用于海水淡化，亦可用于水超标改质以及污水的处理。主权利要求：一种太阳能海水淡化棚，它包括日光透明棚罩、棚架和蒸发池其特征是：通过棚架支撑带倾斜角度的日光透明棚罩，在日光透明棚罩的下部设置导流槽，导流槽有水流坡度，导流槽的最低处设置淡水出口，蒸发池的上方设置海水上水口，下方设置海水浓液排放口。

3、瑞恩数码科技，太阳能海水淡化机。成果描述：该成果来源于莫斯科技术大学太阳能技术中心。所有制备工艺装备、工艺文件等全套生产技术，从太阳能聚热管和蒸馏系统到成套设备的组装、调试和计算机测试。系统技术参数：聚热真空管最高温度：300℃或700℃。聚热真空管工作温度：100℃。真空度保持：利用太阳能泵。水软化率：硬度下降20倍/小时。淡水生产率：固定式太阳能最大50吨/天，移动式燃油最大4吨/天~8吨/天。

4、郑宏飞，何开岩，陈子乾，北京：北京理工大学出版社，2005《太阳能海水淡化技术》本书对各类新兴的太阳能海水淡化技术进行了分类和总结，集中介绍了有关太阳能海水淡化技术中最基本的传热传质和太阳能接收器方面的知识，重点讨论了传统的和主动式的太阳能蒸馏器及其原理和性能，以及与常规海水淡化技术相结合的各类太阳能海水淡化系统，对其能量利用效率和性能系数进行了分析和计算，介绍了它们的运行原理和未来发展的方向。本书可作为本科生及研究生教材，可供太阳能热利用、海水淡化、能源工程和水处理等部门的科研、工程技术人员参考。

5、郑宏飞;王瑞君;王义春;杨英俊;石惠宁《人类工效学》2005年01期《新型太阳能海水淡化系统中人、机、环境关系的优化与分析》运用人机环境系统工程理论,以谋求人、机、环境三大要素最佳综合效益为目标,对新型太阳能海水淡化系统与人和环境的关系进行了分析,指出了优化三要素之间关系的方向。

6、张耀明,邹宁宇《中国工程科学》2005年11期《海水淡化技术与太阳能利用》海水淡化是解决水源危机的根本措施,但海水淡化绝不能以牺牲能源为代价;现有的几种海水淡化技术各有优劣,应配套使用;河海大学和南京玻纤院等研制的太阳能加热装置,可以作为海水淡化装置中清洁、无污染的能源。

7、郑宏飞《自然杂志》2000年01期《太阳能海水淡化技术》本文对太阳能海水淡化技术的发展历史进行了回顾,对该技术的现状和前景进行了综述和讨论,指出了提高其产水效率的方向。

8、苏润西《海洋技术》2002年04期《太阳能海水淡化技术》文章论述应用太阳能集热和太阳能光伏发电系统进行蒸馏淡化和膜法淡化的海水淡化方法。与传统动力源和热源相比,

太阳能具有安全、环保等优点,将太阳能采集与脱盐工艺两个系统结合是一种可持续发展的海水淡化技术

9、张小粉《太阳能海水淡化装置的能量系统研究》海水淡化是解决淡水资源短缺的有效途径。低温蒸馏式海水淡化方法是目前公认的最有发展前景的海水淡化方法之一，其优点是：对热源要求不高，操作温度低，可使用太阳能或烟气余热等低品位热源，对设备腐蚀性小，不易结垢。太阳能是一种洁净、安全、无污染的可再生能源。本文主要对新型低温蒸馏式太阳能海水淡化的能量系统进行了研究，采用高效无机热管作为传热元件，设计了新型太阳能集热板以及单效低温蒸馏式太阳能海水淡化系统的其它主要部件，建立了试验台，对影响其产水量的各因素进行了分析，对装置提出了改进意见。由于氙灯辐射光谱与太阳的辐射光谱很接近，因此本文采用氙灯模拟太阳辐射。首先，对西安地区的太阳辐射强度进行了计算，并以计算出的辐射强度为依据，确定了模拟光源的辐射强度值；以集热面上接收到的辐射强度均匀为设计原则，选取了氙灯的功率、个数，设计了布置方式。设计了新型多孔太阳能集热板。该集热板放置于蒸馏器内海水面的上方，蒸馏器内的工作压力为负压。集热板表面涂有黑色的吸收涂层，上面均匀开有数目不同的两种孔，小孔供蒸汽通过，大孔用来安装导热管。导热管由高效无机热管制作。

10、张晓东;原郭丰;成珂;张鹤飞《水处理技术》2006年06期《新型太阳能海水淡化系统》本文提出一种全新的太阳能海水淡化与组合式空调系统模型,阐述了系统的运行原理。研究了原理样机海水淡化功能中淡水产量与海水喷淋量、海水喷淋温度的关系。在此基础上,对与原理样机匹配的复合抛物面型集热器(CPC)系统进行了优化设计。为整个系统进一步的联合运行研究奠定了基础

11、王许云; 张林; 陈欢林; 高从堦，第一届海水淡化与水再利用西湖论坛论文集, 2006 年《太阳能海水淡化系统开发进展》本文综述了太阳能海水淡化的研究进展,重点讨论了用于海水淡化的太阳能集热器及蒸发器的发展、太阳能海水淡化和太阳能膜法海水淡化技术开发现状

12、Kalogirou S. Energy, 1997, V olume 22,《Survey of solar desalination systems and system selection 》Abstract：The most common sea water desalination systems available today are described. These are divided into two broad categories, namely, direct and indirect collection systems. In the former, solar energy is absorbed and used in the same piece of equipment whereas in the latter, two separate sub-systems are used, one for solar energy conversion and one for desalination. V arious systems are analysed with respect to their primary energy consumption, sea water treatment requirement, cost, and suitability for solar energy utilisation. Of the various types of processes that are analysed, the multiple-effect boiling (MEB) system and, in particular, the multiple-effect stack (MES) type evaporator, is the most suitable for solar energy utilisation since it can be used under varying energy supplies without upset. In addition, this system has a low specific energy requirement, low equipment cost and also requires the simplest sea water treatment.

13、F. Banat, R. Jumah and M. Garaibeh；Renewable Energy V olume 25, Issue 2《Exploitation of solar energy collected by solar stills for desalination by membrane distillation》Abstract：The aim of this work was to evaluate the technical feasibility of producing potable water from simulated seawater by integrating a membrane distillation module with a solar still. The relatively hot brine in the solar still was used as a feed to the membrane module. The synergistic action of the solar still and the membrane module in the production of potable water was

quantified. For this purpose, two types of experiment were conducted, indoor experiments and outdoor experiments. The sensitivity of the permeate flux to the brine temperature, flow rate, salt concentration and solar irradiation were all investigated. Overall, the flux of water from the solar still was no more than 20% of the total flux. The brine temperature significantly affected the flux of both the solar still and the membrane module, while the effect of salt concentration was marginal. The effect of these process parameters was more noticeable in the membrane module than in the solar still

14、Efat Chafik；Desalination V olume 153, Issues 1-3《A new seawater desalination process using solar energy》Abstract：This paper presents the development of a new process to desalinate seawater using solar energy. By the proposed process, the solar energy heats airflow up to a temperature between 50 and 80°C. The moderate solar heated air will be humidified by injecting seawater into the air stream. Later on, the water being free of salt will be extracted from the humid air by cooling it. Using air as a heat carrier and keeping the maximum operating temperature in the process lower than 80°C enables the use of cost effective polymers as construction material. The main feature of the present process is a successive loading of air with vapor up to a relative high humidity, such as 10 or 15 wt.%. As a result, the air volume flowing through the plant can be substantially reduced. This target will be realized by a new suggested stepwise heating/humidifying-technique. The thermodynamic background of the new process will be described. An optimizing procedure of the desalinating process by selecting of optimum process parameters will be explained. Low cost air heaters for collecting of solar energy are developed. Special designs for air humidification by evaporating of seawater has been constructed and tested. Condensing equipment has been designed to recover desalinated water out of the humidified air. This new equipment will be described and the test results of its performance will be delivered. The new collector types and the developed humidifying and dehumidifying equipment are a part of an indoor one-stage-plant consisting of a solar simulator and an air humidifying loop in Bochum, Germany. This plant is running now and serves as a pilot to provide optimum operating conditions and design guidelines for a demonstration plant. Based on these results, an engineering package for the demonstration plant will be completed.

15、Eftihia Tzen and Richard Morris；Solar Energy Volume 75, Issue 5《Renewable energy sources for desalination》Abstract：Renewable energy sources (RES) coupled to desalination offers a promising prospect for covering the fundamental needs of power and water in remote regions, where connection to the public electrical grid is either not cost effective or not feasible, and where the water scarcity is severe. Stand-alone systems for electricity supply in isolated locations are now proven technologies. Correct matching of stand-alone power supply desalination systems has been recognized as being crucial if the system is to provide a satisfactory supply of power and water at a reasonable cost. The paper covers plants installed since 1990 on the coupling of the two technologies. The main driver promoting the take up of this technology is that water is a limiting factor for many countries in the Mediterranean region. This paper presents the two technologies, RES desalination, and describes the most promising couplings such as PV–reverse osmosis, wind-mechanical-vapor compression,

geothermal-multieffect distillation, etc as well as technologies selection guidelines. Also, included applications and lessons learned from specific applications as well as data on the economics. RES for desalination is an important challenge and useful work has been done. However in order to provide practical viable plants, much remains to be done.

16、Soteris Kalogirou；Applied Energy Volume 60, Issue 2《Use of parabolic trough solar energy collectors for sea-water desalination》Abstract：The various desalination methods are analysed with respect to their primary energy consumption, sea-water treatment requirement and equipment cost. From this analysis, the multiple-effect boiling evaporator is concluded to be the most suitable method for stimulation by solar energy. The parabolic-trough solar-collector is selected mainly due to its ability to function at high temperatures with high efficiency. The design of the flash vessel and the desalination system circuit are presented. System modelling is used to predict the rate of fresh water produced by four sizes of systems, varying from small 10 m2to large 2160 m2 collector-area applications. The economic analysis performed, showed that prices of about 0.89 C￡/m2 can be achieved with the larger applications. Nevertheless, it is not cost effective to operate the system solely on solar energy due to the relatively high cost of the equipment and the high percentage of inactive time.

17、Said Al-Hallaj, Mohammed Mehdi Farid and Abdul Rahman Tamimi；Desalination Volume 120, Issue 3《Solar desalination with a humidification-dehumidification cycle: performance of the unit》Abstract：The closed air cycle humidification-dehumidification process was used for water desalination using solar energy. The circulated air by natural or forced convection was heated and humidified by the hot water obtained either from a flat plate solar collector or from an electrical heater. The latent heat of condensation was recovered in the condenser to preheat the saline feed water. Two units of different sizes were constructed from different materials. The productivity of these units was found to be much higher than those of the single-basin stills. Moreover, these units were capable of producing a large quantity of saline warm water for domestic uses other than drinking. No significant improvement in the performance of the desalination units was achieved using forced air circulation at high temperatures. While at lower temperatures, a larger effect was noticed. This can be related to the low heat and mass transfer coefficients at low temperatures and to the non-linear increase in the water vapor pressure with temperature.

18、Lourdes García-Rodríguez；Solar Energy Volume 75, Issue 5《Renewable energy applications in desalination: state of the art》Abstract：Millions

of people have no access to a secure source of fresh water. Nevertheless, since many arid regions are coastal areas, seawater desalination is a reasonable alternative. On the other hand, the energy requirements of desalination processes are high. Then, the energy supply in low development countries or isolated areas may be a problem, especially if electricity is required. Since most arid regions have high renewable energy resources, the use of renewable energies in seawater desalination exhibits an interesting chance, or even the only way to offer a secure source of fresh water. The status and perspectives of development of coupling renewable energy systems with desalination units are reviewed. It is pointed out that there are place of development even for such technologies that seem to be the most mature ones.

19、Klemens Schwarzer, Maria Eugênia Vieira, Christian Faber and Christoph Müller；Desalination Volume 137, Issues 1-3《Solar thermal desalination system with heat recovery》Abstract：This work presents the energy and mass balance equations, the numerical simulation results for the production rate, and the experimental laboratory water tests for a thermal desalination unit with a heat recovery system. The system components are a solar collector and a desalination tower, although the system can be operated with other energy sources. The desalination tower is made of six stages and a water circulation system through the stages to avoid salt concentration. The numerical results calculated using ambient data show that the production rate can reach 25 L/m2/d, which is by a factor of five times greater than the rate of a basin-type solar desalination unit. The water (polluted seawater and well water) laboratory tests results show that the desalination process eliminated the Coliform group bacteria and reduced the salt concentration to very low levels.

20、Mattheus F. A. Goosen, Shyam S. Sablani, Walid H. Shayya, Charles Paton and Hilal Al-Hinai；Desalination Volume 129, Issue 1《Thermodynamic and economic considerations in solar desalination》Abstract：The thermodynamic efficiency of single-basin and multiple-effect solar water desalination systems was critically reviewed with special emphasis on humidification-dehumidification processes. Solar energy may be used, either directly or indirectly, to produce fresh water. The concept of using the humidification-dehumidification process in combination with the growth of crops in a greenhouse system, however, is relatively new. System economics was also covered since it affects the final cost of produced water. While a system may be technically very efficient, it may not be economic. The challenges and opportunities of solar energy were also briefly discussed. The paper closes with a summary of key factors

affecting system performance and recommendations for future areas of investigation and development.

21、J. Orfi, M. Laplante, H. Marmouch, N. Galanis, B. Benhamou,S. Ben Nasrallah, C.T. Nguyen；Desalination 2004, vol. 168, no.1-3

《Experimental and theoretical study of a

humidification-dehumidification water desalination system using solar energy》Abstract：This paper presents the characteristics of a solar desalination system based on the humidification-dehumidification principle. The system which, can be used in an open or closed cycle for air, is a modular one. It has the following independent components: two solar collectors, an evaporator and a condenser. The first part of the study deals with the presentation of the designed and constructed components. Some experimental results are analysed. They present a general picture of the evolution of the temperature and the humidity between the entry and the exit of the solar collector, the evaporator and the condenser. In the second part, a general mathematical model including the mechanism of heat and mass transfer in the various components of the present desalination system was developed. The theoretical results show that there exists an optimum mass flow rate ratio corresponding to a maximum fresh water product.

22、Michael Hermann, Joachim Koschikowski and Matthias Rommel；Solar Energy Volume 72, Issue 5,《Corrosion-free solar collectors for thermally driven seawater desalination》Abstract：Seawater desalination can be carried out by a variety of techniques, some of which are thermally driven at operating temperatures in the range of 70 to 120°C. At this temperature level, these systems can be supplied with thermal energy gained from solar flat-plate collectors. In order to increase the efficiency of such systems and simultaneously reduce costs, a heat exchanger between the collector loop and the desalination unit can be omitted if the seawater flows directly through the collector absorbers. Since hot seawater is very aggressive, this configuration requires corrosion-free absorbers. We developed collectors which fulfil this requirement. They were installed in a pilot plant in Pozo Izquierdo, Gran Canaria, which produces about 600 l of drinking water per day. The main task was to find materials which are resistant to seawater and can withstand stagnation temperatures up to 200°C, out of which appropriate absorber constructions had to be developed. Moreover, it had to be ensured that it was possible to apply a selective coating on the absorber. A further limitation was given by the aim for the resulting water costs. After investigating different materials and collector designs, we developed a prototype consisting of

an array of selectively coated glass tubes mounted in a conventional flat-plate collector housing. The efficiency was increased by adding a specially shaped reflector. The design was developed by carrying out various optical and thermal simulations, and indoor as well as outdoor tests. We obtained appropriate collectors which fulfil the technical and economical requirements. Finally, first results of the in-situ measurements in Gran Canaria will be presented.

23、Nabil Hussain A. Rahim；Desalination Volume 138, Issues 1-3《Utilisation of new technique to improve the efficiency of horizontal solar desalination still》Abstract：It is a well-known fact that the energy used in the process of desalinating seawater is directly proportional to the amount of salt extracted from the water. Very small portions of fresh water consumed in each house is used for drinking and cooking, the rest is used for flushing, cleaning, and watering the garden and other purposes. In order to reduce the energy consumed in this process and hence the energy impact on the environment it is desirable to supply each house, from centralised desalination plants, with relatively high salt content water good enough for all domestic purposes other than drinking. Then each household produces its own drinking water by installing small solar desalination stills on the roof or in the garden. For any desalination unit to be domestically acceptable its efficiency should be reasonably high while its capital and running cost should be relatively low, and probably be partly integrated within the water system of the house. The existing conventional small solar basin stills have some drawbacks that make them inefficient to be used as domestic units. This paper highlights some drawbacks that exist in the evaporation and condensing zones of the horizontal solar desalination stills, and introduces new techniques developed at the University of Bahrain to improve the efficiency of both evaporating and condensing zones and suggesting a new cheap method of storing excess solar energy during the day, for the continuation of the process at night. Exhaustive data collected over a few years are analysed and presented to show the effectiveness of the new techniques in improving the efficiency of the small solar desalination units.

24、Efat Chafik；Desalination Volume 156, Issues 1-3《A new type of seawater desalination plants using solar energy》Abstract：This paper presents a new water desalination process. The basic unit operation in this process is to use solar energy for heating of an air stream and in the second step to add seawater into the hot air in order to humidify it. follows a cooling step of the humid air providing potable water as a condennsate. On the base of this solar desalination process, a desalination plant is predicted and designed to provide 10 m3 of potable water daily. The main feature of the new process is the stepwise loading of air by vapour. The process

consists of several steps for air heating, each followed by a humidification stage. This manner of operating makes it possible to obtain high vapour concentration in the air flow, thus reducing the air flow rate through the plant. The power necessary for air blower and the size of pipes and other equipment decrease. Experimental and computational work has been conducted to realise the application of that new desalination idea. New collectors for solar heating of air and humidifying equipment to moisten that heated air are developed. Heat exchanger for recovery of water by dehumidifying of the humid air could be designed and tested. Using this new equipment, a small pilot plant could be constructed and run to test the new process under different operating conditions. The results of these tests will be presented. A dynamic simulation program to predict, to optimise and to design solar desalination plants according to the new process has been developed. The program includes also an economic part, which enables the optimisation of the process under consideration of thermodynamic aspects as well as from the economic point of view. Applying the dynamic simulation program and the developed economic optimisation procedure, it is possible to design and to optimise any desired plant using the new process. As a demonstration, a plant with a capacity of 10 m3 of potable water per day is designed and optimised according the developed planning and optimisation procedure. For this plant the size and the optimum operating conditions of each kind of equipment are detennined. The process flow sheet of this desalination plant is provided. The required investment costs are determined under variation of some plant design parameter.

25、G. N. Tiwari, H. N. Singh and Rajesh Tripathi；Solar Energy Volume 75, Issue 5《Present status of solar distillation》Abstract：In this communication an attempt has been made to review, in brief, work on solar distillation, its present status in the world today and its future perspective. The review also includes water sources, water demand, availability of potable water and purification methods including the state of art and historical background. The classification of distillation units has been done on the basis of literature survey till today. The basic heat and mass transfer relation responsible for developing, testing procedure for various designs of solar stills have also been discussed. The present status of solar distillation units in India, economics of single and double slope fibre re-inforced plastic on the basis of long-term performance and recommendations for future have been discussed in brief.

26、Y. J. Dai and H. F. Zhang；Desalination Volume 130, Issue 2, 1《Experimental investigation of a solar desalination unit with humidification and dehumidification》Abstract：A solar desalination unit

with humidification and dehumidification is presented. Experiments on the unit were conducted. It was found that the performance of the system was strongly dependent on the temperature of inlet salt water to the humidifier, the mass flow rate of salt water, and the mass flow rate of the process air. There existed an optimum rotation speed for the fan corresponding to an optimum mass flow rate of air with respect to both thermal efficiency and water production. The unit worked perfectly and the thermal efficiency was above 80%. Other low-grade heat resources such as waste heat can also be utilized to drive the desalination process. It was expected that the unit would be of great potential for use in desalination in arid areas and isolated islands.

27、V. Belessiotis and E. Delyannis;Desalination Volume 139, Issues 1-3《Water shortage and renewable energies (RE) desalination — possible technological applications》Abstract：Nowadays an oil crisis is going on. The impact of rising fuel prices of all energy sources, except renewable ones is destructive. It is an opportunity and a challenge to promote renewable energies by application of the existing technology and simultaneously by intensive research to lower costs and improve technology for more compact installations, less expensive materials and longer life. In this paper an attempt is made to evaluate water shortage and water needs in some of the dry Aegean Archipelagos islands and analyze the possibility to install solar devices, mostly solar distillation units, individual or small community size. A preliminary analysis is also made to assess the feasibility of waste heat as well as heat from refuse incineration.

28、Shaobo Hou, Shengquan Ye and Hefei Zhang；Desalination Volume 183, Issues 1-3《Performance optimization of solar

humidification–dehumidification desalination process using Pinch technology》Abstract：This paper presents a method of performance optimization of solar humidification–dehumidification desalination (HDD) process using Pinch technology. Pinch technology is used in the humidification process to determine the maximum possible saturated air temperature and the temperature of water rejected from the unit, and then in dehumidification process to determine the temperature of water leaving from heat exchanger. From pinch chart, all the thermal energy rejected, supplied and recovered are determined easily. Both the optimum mass flow rate ratio of water to dry air and maximum thermal energy recovery rate is obtained by adjusting mass flow rate ratio of water to dry air. The curve of optimum mass flow rate ratio of water to dry air at a different spraying water temperature is acquired by changing spraying water temperature follow the above steps. The analysis method using Pinch technology in HDD process proves a very simple, visual and efficient. From

Pinch technology analysis, there exits an optimummass flow rate ratio of water to dry air if given the temperature of spraying water and cooling water. The energy recovery rate can reach 0.67 at the optimum mass flows rate rati o when the spraying water temperature is 80°C and cooling water temperature is 30°C. The optimum mass flows rate ratio of water to dry air decreases with cooling water temperature declines when the spraying water temperature remains unchanged. If the minimum temperature difference at pinch points are 1°C, the energy recovery rate could reach 0.75.

29、Joachim Koschikowski, Marcel Wieghaus and Matthias Rommel；Desalination Volume 156, Issues 1-3,《Solar thermal-driven desalination plants based on membrane distillation》Abstract：In arid and semi-arid regions the lack of drinkable water often corresponds with high solar insolation. These conditions are favourable for the use of solar energy as the driving force for water treatment systems. Especially in remote rural areas with low infrastructure and without connection to a grid, small-scale, stand-alone operating systems for the desalination of brackish water from wells or saltwater from the sea are desirable to provide settlements with clean potable water. Fraunhofer ISE is currently developing a solar thermally driven stand-alone desalination system. The aim is to develop systems for a capacity ranging from 0.2 to 20 m3/d. Technical simplicity, long maintenance-free operation periods and high-quality potable water output are the very important aims which will enable successful application of the systems. The separation technique on which the system is based is membrane distillation. The implemented heat source is a corrosion-free, seawater-resistant, thermal collector or a standard flat-plate or vacuum tube collector coupled with a corrosion-free heat exchanger. Laboratory tests under defined testing conditions of all components are very important for the preparation of successful field tests under real conditions.

30、Soteris A. Kalogirou；Progress in Energy and Combustion Science Volume 31, Issue 3,《Seawater desalination using renewable energy sources》Abstract：The origin and continuation of mankind is based on water. Water is one of the most abundant resources on earth, covering three-fourths of the planet's surface. However, about 97% of the earth's water is salt water in the oceans, and a tiny 3% is fresh water. This small percentage of the earth's water—which supplies most of human and animal needs—exists in ground water, lakes and rivers. The only nearly inexhaustible sources of water are the oceans, which, however, are of high salinity. It would be feasible to address the water-shortage problem with seawater desalination; however, the separation of salts from seawater requires large amounts of energy which, when produced from fossil fuels,

can cause harm to the environment. Therefore, there is a need to employ environmentally-friendly energy sources in order to desalinate seawater.

After a historical introduction into desalination, this paper covers a large variety of systems used to convert seawater into fresh water suitable for human use. It also covers a variety of systems, which can be used to harness renewable energy sources; these include solar collectors, photovoltaics, solar ponds and geothermal energy. Both direct and indirect collection systems are included. The representative example of direct collection systems is the solar still. Indirect collection systems employ two sub-systems; one for the collection of renewable energy and one for desalination. For this purpose, standard renewable energy and desalination systems are most often employed. Only industrially-tested desalination systems are included in this paper and they comprise the phase change processes, which include the multistage flash, multiple effect boiling and vapour compression and membrane processes, which include reverse osmosis and electrodialysis. The paper also includes a review of various systems that use renewable energy sources for desalination. Finally, some general guidelines are given for selection of desalination and renewable energy systems and the parameters that need to be considered.