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Economic evaluation of reverse osmosis desalination system coupled with tidal energy

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Abstract

A reverse osmosis (RO) desalination system coupled with tidal energy is proposed. The mechanical energy produced by the tidal energy through hydraulic turbine is directly used to drive the RO unit. The system performances and the water cost of the conventional and tidal energy RO systems are compared. It is found that the proposed tidal energy RO system can save water cost in the range of 31.0%-41.7% in comparison with the conventional RO system. There is an optimum feed pressure that leads to the lowest water cost. The tidal RO system can save more costs at a high feed pressure or a high water recovery rate. The optimum feed pressure of the tidal energy RO system is higher than that of the conventional RO system. The longer lifetime of the tidal energy RO system can save even more water cost. When the site development cost rate is lower than 40%, the water cost of the tidal energy RO system will be lower than that of the conventional RO system. The proposed technology will be an effective alternative desalination method in the future.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Key Laboratory of Ocean Renewable Energy and Sea Water Desalination of Science and Technology Special Project of Zhanjiang City of China (2013 A06008), the Science and Technology Project of Guangdong Province of China (2011B010100033), and the Science and Technology Development Project in Ocean and Fishery of Guangdong Province of China (A201301D01).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Mechanical and Power Engineering, Guangdong Ocean University, Zhanjiang, 524025, China

    Changming Ling & Yifei Wang

  2. College of Energy and Environmental Engineering, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin, 300401, China

    Chunhua Min

  3. Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, 65211, USA

    Yuwen Zhang

Authors
  1. Changming Ling
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  2. Yifei Wang
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  3. Chunhua Min
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  4. Yuwen Zhang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yuwen Zhang.

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This work is carried out during the first author’s visiting appointment at the University of Missouri.

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Ling, C., Wang, Y., Min, C. et al. Economic evaluation of reverse osmosis desalination system coupled with tidal energy. Front. Energy 12, 297–304 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-017-0478-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-017-0478-2

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