Experimental investigation of the performance of a reverse osmosis desalination unit under full- and part-load operation

AbstractSea water reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination constitutes a successful technology for covering the potable water needs of islands and coastal regions. SWRO units can be combined with renewable energy technologies such as photovoltaic and wind generators. Conventional small scale SWRO units are not often combined with energy recovery devices; however, these devices can decrease drastically the energy consumption of the SWRO units. Furthermore, in the literature there are references which prove that the operation of a desalination unit in part-load conditions can result in lower specific energy consumption compared to full-load operation. This paper presents the simulation and the experimental investigation under full- and part-load conditions of an existing SWRO desalination unit (50 mS/cm feed water) in order for the desalination unit to be optimally utilized in a polygeneration microgrid topology which uses advanced energy management algorithms. The experimental operation of the SWRO Unit in part...