Water desalting by solar powered electrodialysis

Abstract Many of the populations living in remote communities in arid and semi-arid regions of the world experience saline water supplies. While these regions may lack adequate electrical supplies for desalting water, they typically have an abundance of intense sunlight. An attractive, potential alternative either to installing small fossil fuel power generators or to trucking fresh water supplies is to desalt the water by solar powered electrodialysis. An integrated system combining (1) a photovoltaic concentrator that produces D.C. electric power and collects thermal energy with (2) an electrodialysis desalting plant that requires less D.C. power as the temperature of the feed water is raised has several benefits. These benefits and their economic impact on total water costs are examined for plant capacities in the 4,000 to 40,000 GPD range.