Abundant biomass to support solar in desalination project

Seawater could be converted into drinking water using biomass energy as a heat source in a new project between academics in England and Egypt.

The two-year project will see a team from the Energy 2050 Institute based at Sheffield University partner with academics at Port Said University in Egypt to develop a system that could provide fresh and safe water in poor and rural communities.

According to Sheffield University, Egypt’s growing population and scarcity of water resources means that freshwater supplies are becoming increasingly stressed.

Desalination technologies offer an alternative source of water but at a high energy cost. Renewable solar energy has been used in these technologies but it suffers due to intermittency.

A hybrid system using biogas and solar is an entirely new technology with only a handful of studies being attempted so far. There are several options for the integration of the hybrid energy system and the desalination process and the process will explore thermal and electrically based freshwater production systems.