Water Desalination Driven by Solar Energy

Abstract

The abundance of drinking water is necessary for daily needs, but recently it has become a worrying obsession worldwide, as it requires the use of fossil fuels for its production, and since the whole world is moving to reduce greenhouse gases emissions, it was necessary to think about using alternative renewable energy in the production of drinking water and that was through desalination of salty water. Solar energy has been widely used. The methods that use solar power are divided into direct and indirect, which include several steps, and the solar energy systems used are varied. In the present study, desalination methods and some types of solar energy systems used are mentioned with a comparison of the amount of production and costs, in addition to the improvement resulting from the use of PCM. It was found that the solar Fresnel lens system is the most effective in producing fresh water compared with its cost. The solar desalination stations in Jordan are 29 and only 1 solar-powered desalination plant out of them, but the universities and independent factories have their solar deamination systems.