Feasibility analysis of solar combi-system for simultaneous production of pure drinking water via membrane distillation and domestic hot water for single-family villa: pilot plant setup in Dubai

This paper presents the feasibility study of installation of a solar-driven integrated MD desalination system for simultaneous production of pure drinking water and solar domestic hot water in United Arab Emirates (UAE) for a single-family villa comprising of 4–5 persons. In order to satisfy the current and future demand of water for domestic purposes, the desalination of seawater is considered to be one of the most effective and strategic technique in UAE. The stress on the underground water aquifers, rapid industrial growth, and increase in urban population in UAE results in the tremendous increase in fresh water demand during the past few decades. Since the local municipalities also provide the desalinated fresh water to the people but they mostly rely on bottled water for drinking purpose. In this paper, the pilot setup plant is designed, commissioned, and installed on site in UAE using air gap membrane distillation desalination process to fulfill the demand of 15–25 L/d of pure drinking water and 250 L/d of domestic hot water for a single-family villa. Experimental analyses have been performed on this setup during summer on flat plate solar collectors having different aperture areas (Experiments have been performed for aperture area of 11.9 m² in this research study for feasibility purpose). The average hot-side temperature ranges from 50 to 70°C and average cold-side temperature of 35°C.