Five solar energy water desalination systems were designed to deliver 6000 cubic m/day of desalted water from either seawater or brackish water. Two systems will be selected for pilot plant construction. The pilot plants will have capacities in the range of 100 to 400 m/day. Goals of the Project Agreement for Cooperation in the Field of Solar Energy, under the auspices of the United States-Saudi Arabian Joint Commission on Economic Cooperation, are to: (1) cooperate in the field of solar energy technology for the mutual benefit of the two countries, including the development and stimulation of solar industries within the two countries; (2) advance the development of solar energy technology in the two countries; and (3) facilitate the transfer between the two countries of technology developed under this agreement

Luft, W.

William, J.

English

NASA Technical Reports Server

SOLAR ENERGY WATER DmALINATION IN THE 
UNITED STATE8 AND SAUDI ARABIA 
Werner Luf t 
Project Manager 
U.S./Saudi Arabian Program 
Solar Energy Research Institute 
16 17 Cole Boulevard 
Golden, Colorado 
(303) 231-1233 
Jim Williamson 
U.S. Program Director 
U.S./Saudi Arabien Program 
Solor Energy Research Institute 
I6 17 Cole Boulevard 
Golden, Colorado 
(303) 23 1-1850 
3 Five solar energy water des~lination systems are being designed to deliver 6000 m /day 
of desalted water from either seawater or brackish water. After the system definition 
study is completed in July 198 1, two systems will be selected for pi1 t plant construe Q tion. The pilot plants will have capacities in the range of 100 ?o 400 m /day. 
1.0 BACKGROUND 
Ir. October 1977, Saudi Arabia and the United States signed a Project Agreement for 
Cooperation in the Field of Solar Energy (SOLERAS) under the auspices of the 
United States-Saudi Arabian Joint Commission on Economic Cooperation. The objectives 
of the agreement are to: 
0 cooperate in the field of solar energy technology for the mutual benefit of the 
two countris, including the development and stimulation of solar industries 
within the two countries; 
advance the development of solar energy technology in the two countries; and 
0 facilitate the transfer between the two countries of technology developed under 
this agreement. 
The Solar Lnergy Research Institute (SERI), as the Operating Agent, is responsible for 
implementing SOLERAS in accordance with directives of the SOLERAS Executive Board 
who has approved a five-year technical program plan. 
As part of this technical program plan, an area of Industrial Solar Applications for solar 
technology has been identified. A specific objective is to demonstrate the use of solar 
energy in desalinating water. Water desalination is needed in both Saudi Arabia and the 
United Sttltes. In Saudi Arabia, water is needed principally for municipal and agricultural 
applications. In the United States, desalination is mainly required to control river salin- 
ity and provide potable water to selected communities that have criticai water quality 
problems or * a t e  shortages. 
2.0 PROJECT PLANS 
To accomplish the objective of the SOLERAS solar energy water desalination project, a 
3-phase activity is planned. The phases are as follows: 
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19810022015 2020-03-21T10:07:21+00:00Z
Phase 1: Preliminary System Design and Cost Analysis 
Phase 2: Detailed Pilot Plant Design and Construction 
Phase 3: Pilot Plallt Operation and Training of Personnel 
Phase 1: System analyses and economic analyses will be performed by several companies 
m a r  energy desalination system of their choice for either seawater or brackish 
water desalin tion. The systems will each be for an average daily product water capac- 9 ity of 6000 m . The main criterion for the analysis will be the product water cost. Each 
system will be designed for a specific site and application. The site, application, and 
technology will have broad applicability to general water desalination needs in  either the 
United States or in Saudi Arabia. It is the intent of this project to encourage innovation 
without unduly affecting performance and reliability. Subsystems and their interfaces 
will  be defined during Phase 1 and product-water cost projections will be made for com- 
mercial plants of a range of capacities. 
Finally, a development plan for Phase 2 will be generated including detailed cost esti- 
m tes for ?he design and construction of a pilot plant with a capacity of 100 to 400 9 in /day using the technology of the baseline system. 
Phase 2: Of the several systems designed in Phase 1, one system in each category 
<brackish and seawater desalination) will be chosen for pilot plant construction. The cri- 
teria for selection wil l  include levelized cost per unit of product water for the commer- 
cial sized plant, design and construction cost for the pilot plant, consistency in cost 
between the commercial sized plant and the pilot plant, maturity of system design and 
projected pl t reliability. Each pilot plant will have a product-water output capacity of Y' 100 to 400 m /day. The pilot plants will be designed in detail and constructed on specific 
sites. 
The size of the pilot plant was selected to be within the budget limitations of the 
SOLERAS Program and is of a capacity that provides useful technical and economic data 
for planning design, and construction of a commercially-sized plant. A pilot plant deliv- 3 ering 400 m /day of desalted water would provide water to 2,000 people or could provide 
irrigation water for about 8,000 m 2  of greenhouse agriculture. If the ratio of the ulti- 
mate plant capacity to the pilot plant capacity becomes too great, less useful technical 
and economic information for application to the full scale plant can be extracted from 
the pilot plant constructior~ and operation. 
Phase 3: The pilot plants will be operated and performance measurements made to 
provide the information essential for designing commercial-sized desalting plants. Local 
personnel will be trained in the operation and maintenance of the plant so they can make 
performance m emuremen ts. 
The schedule for Phase 1 is from October 1980 to July 1981. Phase 2 is expected to start 
in  October 1981 with the pilot plant construction completed by July 1983. Phase 3 will 
start at the completion of Phase 2 and will continue upti! ;he end of 1983. 
i 
The five companies that have been awarded contracts for Phase 1 and their team 
members are shown in Table 1. The technologies involved in the five systems, the water 
type, and projected plant locations are given in Table 2. The table shows that the five 
contracts represent six different desalination technologies (seawater and brackish water 
zeverse osmosis are regarded as two differen4 processes), and five different solar energy 
technologies. 
The two companies which utilize point focus tl.ermal collectors are discussed in more 
detail in the next section. 
'I'dAe 1. C0NTRACIY)RS FOB P H M B  1 
Prime 
Contractor Team Members 
Boeing Engineer~ng Resource Conservation Co. 
& Construction Co. International 
Catalytic, Inc. Science Applications, Inc. 
Chicago Bridge & Foster-Miller Associates, Inc. 
Iron Co. Arabian Chicago Bridge & 
Iron Co. 
DHR, Inc. Science Applications, Inc. 
Ionics, Inc. 
Al-Radwan 
Exxon Research Permui tit Co., Inc. 
& Engineering Co. Ecodyne-Unitec Div. 
MartipMarietta 
Badger Energy, Inc. 
Saudi Investment Development Center 
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The Catalytic solar energy collection ~ubsys em consists of three types of solar thermal 1 collectors, having a total area of 64,C'OO m . The collectors include high temperature 
point-focus Omnium-G thermal collectors, medium tempefat ure line-focus Fresnel ther- 
mal collectors, and low tempereture Winston thermal collectors. In addition, 12 wind 
generators provide a total of 2.4 M W  of electric power. 
Energy stora e is mvided using a high-temperature air thermal storage system over the 5 Po range of 290 -430 C, and medium temperature and low temperature thermal storage 
with a range of 45°-1200C and 180~-290~C, respectively. The medium and low temper- 
ature thermal storage systems use a liquid medium. The total capacity for the thermal 
storage system is 60 MWh. The clectric storage capacity is 725 kwh. 
Energy conversion is abtained though a steam turbine with a 560 kW electric generator 
and through the use of e power reccvery turbine. Backup power is obtained through a 
motor with a 207 kW e l e c ~ i c  generator. 
The brackish water is pretreated and uses 18,006 m3 storage tanks. The desalination 
subsystem consists of two stages of reverse osmosis units in series, operatiitg at 2.9 MPa 
and 5.6 MPa and obaating i series with a multiple effect vertical tube evaporator. The 3 brine is disposed :n 93,000 m surface area evaporation ponds. The water recovery ratio 
is 0.98. 
The Chicago Bridge and Iron system uses 37,000 m 2  distributed point-focus thermal col- 
lectors with t ~ : ,  axes tra-g. Energy storage is obtained through two tanks containing 
H!TEC molten salt operating over a temperature range from 286O-565'~ and having a 
capacity of 148 MWh. 
The energy con*rersion subsystem uses a steam turbine with a 560 kW electric! generator 
and a turbine driving tne 1,216 kW primary refrigeration compressor. Sackup power is 
obtained from a 7.5 M W  boiler. There is no waste disposal subs,stem as the brine is 
rejected directly into the sea. 
t'igures 1 and 2 are block diagrams of the point focus system and show the interaction of 
the subsystems. 
4.0 PROJECT f lATUS 
Subcontracts for the projects were awarded in October 1980. The efforts to date havt: 
focused (11, the definition of sjst:m specifications and trade studies for alternate sub- 
system configurations and components. Simulation models have also been deceloped for 
the plant performance analysis. 
The subcontracts for Phase 1 are all firm fixed price. Financial performance is, there- 
fore, the total responsibility of the subcontractors. 
The technical peformance of the project teams is on schedule. No slippages of major 
milestones are identifiable at this time. The Phase 1 system studies will be completed 
in August 198 1. 
Flgure 1 Block Olagrarn 01 the Calalytlc Syslem 
Flgure 2 Bloch Diagram of the Chlcago Brldgc h Iron System 
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Solar energy water desalination in the United States and Saudi Arabia

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