Author(s)

Fawzi Banat, Hazim Qiblawey, Qais Al- Nasser

Department of Chemical Engineering, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid-Jordan.
Department of Chemical Engineering, Qatar University, P.O. Box 2713, Doha, Qatar.
Department of Chemical Engineering, The Petroleum Institute, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates；Department of Chemical Engineering, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan.

The alarming water and energy crisis in many regions of the world can be eased by combining renewable energy with desalination technologies. The ADIRA project funded by the EU looked for demonstrating the feasibility of water desalination in areas around the Mediterranean by installing a number of autonomous desalination systems (ADS) which are able to convert brackish or seawater into potable water for the needs of small communities. Within the activities of the ADIRA project a reverse osmosis unit powered by photovoltaic electricity was installed in a village in the northern part of Jordan with a capacity of 0.5 m³/day. The system was composed of a softener, reverse osmosis unit, PV panels (432 Wp) and storage batteries. Residential type “OSMONICS” membrane (TFM-100) was utilized in the RO unit. Field tests were performed on brackish water (1700 mg/L total dissolved solids (TDS)). This paper sheds the light on the process flow diagram, sizing of the system main components and presents some of the results obtained.

Reverse Osmosis; Water Filters; Ion Exchange System; Membranes; Carbon Filters

Banat, F. , Qiblawey, H. and Nasser, Q. (2012) Design and Operation of Small-Scale Photovoltaic-Driven Reverse Osmosis (PV-RO) Desalination Plant for Water Supply in Rural Areas. Computational Water, Energy, and Environmental Engineering, 1, 31-36. doi: 10.4236/cweee.2012.13004.