Past work by the authors has suggested that Solar micro Gas Turbines (SmGTs) can be used cost-effectively to produce
electric power and heat for freshwater production through desalination, mainly in off-grid locations. This is further
studied in this work, presenting a detailed description of system performance at design and part-load conditions, as
well as the characteristics of the components of the SmGT and the desalination unit. To this end, the SmGT is assessed
first, considering techniques that achieve a greater off-design performance such as incorporating Variable Inlet Guide
Vanes (VIGVs) at the compressor inlet, and including the sensitivity to control strategies and ambient conditions,
exploring their expectedly very negative impact on the SmGT performance. Water treatment system is comprised
of two elements. A Reverse Osmosis desalination unit is driven by the electric power produced by the SmGT. This
produces brine with high salt concentration to be partially treated further in a Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) unit driven
by the exhaust gases of the microturbine (at about 250-300ºC), where the sensible heat of this stream is harvested by
the ZLD unit to “dry” and concentrate the effluent. Finally, the potential and the operational limitations of the ZLD
system are discussed, supplemented by an experimental proof of concept where its feasibility was verified
