Impacts Solar in collaboration with
University of Western Australia & National Centre of Excellence in Desalination Australia
TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW
Impacts Solar has partnered with the University of Western Australia (UWA) in collaboration with the National Centre of Excellence in Desalination (NCEDA) to develop and deliver solar-powered MED desalination solutions.
Impacts’ Solar Desalination and Power Plant Design won an Australian Innovation Challenge award in 2013.
The solar desalination design utilises UWA/NCEDA’s Multiple Effect Distillation (MED) technology that exploits low-grade and waste heat (75-100ºC) for improved efficiency desalination and cascaded MED effects for an improved freshwater yield of 25-40%. The MED technology is powered by a field of Impacts’ PerflectionTM Solar Thermal Collectors.
The solar-powered MED system is more environmentally benign than standard Reverse Osmosis (RO) desalination, requiring only a fraction of the electrical power consumed by large-scale RO plants, slashing the ongoing operating costs of a desalination plant.
The technology has significant implications for the remediation of Coal Seam Gas (CSG) affected water and the treatment of effluent and riverine salinity, and is also suitable for smaller applications such as on-farm water purification and remote community water supply.
2013 INNOVATION CHALLENGE AWARD
PARTNERS
Solar Desalination benefits include:
- Improved energy efficiency
- Reduced GHG emissions
- Increased reuse of CSG water
- Decreased impacts on groundwater
Solar Desalination applications include:
- Remediation and reuse of CSG effected water
- Water distillation for community supply
- Treatment of riverline salinity
- Treatment of effluent
