Integration of solar chimney with desalination for sustainable water production: A thermodynamic assessment

Abstract

This study analyzes the feasibility of implementing an integrated system for electricity and freshwater production, focusing on solar chimney technology as its main pillar. A preliminary study based on literature is carried out to analyze electrical generation and the heat transfer to the storage system of the solar chimney. In addition, a seawater thermal desalination is incorporated with the idea to increase the overall efficiency of the solar chimney. Furthermore, in order to address electricity and freshwater demand without interruption, a hydro-storage system with a water turbine is integrated. As a result, implementing an integrated system with a solar chimney as its main source of energy, the overall energy efficiency is obtained to be 8.4%, which is substantially higher than a single solar chimney.

Keywords

• Solar chimney
• Solar updraft tower
• Desalination
• Energy
• Exergy