Iran has a great solar energy potential among other countries. In some parts of Iran there are more than 300 sunny days and has a very good opportunities for the use of solar energy. At the same time the need for the production of fresh water from seawater is considerable in the same regions. Water is a basic human requirement for domestic, industrial and agriculture purposes. Solar desalination is a rapidly growing field of research. The coming global oil crisis implies that alternatives to the conventional desalination plants based on fossil fuels must be developed. Solar desalination can be either direct, with collectors and condensers integrated with each other, or indirect, with condensers externally connected to the condensers. Direct solar desalination requires large land areas and has a relatively low productivity compared to the indirect technologies. It is however competitive to indirect desalination plants in small-scale production due to its relatively low cost and simplicity. Indirect solar desalination usually means combining conventional desalination techniques, such as MSF, ME or RO with solar collectors for heat generation. In this study the principles and characteristics of some of the recently developed direct and indirect solar desalination techniques will be presented.
Keywords. Solar Energy; Solar Desalination; Condenser; Collectors
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How to cite this article
Gorjian, S., Hashjin, T.T. and Ghobadian, B. (2011). 'Seawater Desalination using Solar Thermal Technologies: state of the art'. SET Proceedings, 10, pp. 1-6. https://doi.org/10.65582/set.2011.077
