Abu Dhabi solar distillation plant

✍ Scribed by Ali M. El-Nashar; K. Ishii

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1985
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 1009 KB
• Volume: 52
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0011-9164
• DOI: 10.1016/0011-9164(85)80034-5

✦ Synopsis

In Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), a small seawater solar desalination plant has been designed and constructed as part of a cooperative research program for solar desalination between the Water and Electricity Department (Abu Dhabi) and the New Energy Development Organisation (Japan). The system utilizes the horizontal-tube, thin-film, multi-effect stack (MES) distillation concept and has a design capacity of 120 m3/d. The thermal energy required by the MES evaporator is provided by a bank of evacuated glass tube collectors. The system uses no auxiliary heat with solar energy representing the only source of thermal energy. The solar collectors have an effective area of 1862 m*. Three thermally stratified vertical thermal storage tanks with a total capacity of 300 m3 are utilized to provide thermal energy for the distiller. The plant is designed for continuous operation day and night. This paper describes the plant, reviews its design concept and presents the results of two preliminary performance simulation models.