DESOLINATION è partner di SolarPACES 2024: Mostra della ricerca più innovativa nell'ambito dell'innovazione delle energie rinnovabili!

DESOLINATION è partner di SolarPACES 2024: Mostra della ricerca più innovativa nell'ambito dell'innovazione delle energie rinnovabili!

Al 30a conferenza SolarPACES a Roma, in Italia, il progetto DESOLINATION, rappresentato dai suoi partner, l'associazione University of Derby, Università di Teesside, and UNIBS, ha avuto un impatto notevole con la sua ricerca innovativa sulle energie rinnovabili e sulle tecnologie di desalinizzazione.

Rivoluzionare la generazione di energia con cicli di alimentazione basati su miscele di CO2

Uno dei momenti salienti è stata la presentazione da parte di Il team Net Zero dell'Università di Teesside. Rappresentato da Professor Patchigolla Kumar e il suo dinamico team di ricerca.Dr. Abubakr Ayub, Balkan Mutlu, and Kristofer Poirier-Il team ha condiviso i progressi più innovativi nel campo dell'energia solare a concentrazione (CSP) e della desalinizzazione sostenibile.

Balkan Mutlu hanno presentato le loro ricerche all'avanguardia, “Ottimizzazione dei cicli di potenza basati sulla miscela di CO2 per applicazioni CSP: Un approccio multi-obiettivo”.”

Questo lavoro ha il potenziale per rivoluzionare Energia solare concentrata (CSP) e migliorare significativamente la loro efficienza.

  • Utilizzando tecniche avanzate di ottimizzazione multi-obiettivo per migliorare l'efficienza,
  • Sviluppo di nuovi fluidi di lavoro a base di miscele di CO2 per migliorare la produzione di energia.

Concentrandosi sull'ottimizzazione di questi aspetti critici, il team mira a incrementare significativamente le prestazioni degli impianti CSP, spingendo i confini della generazione di energia rinnovabile. L'approccio innovativo promette rendimenti più elevati e minori emissioni, rendendo il CSP una soluzione più praticabile per le sfide energetiche globali.

Affrontare la scarsità d'acqua con la desalinizzazione a scarico zero di liquidi

Un'altra innovazione rivoluzionaria è stata presentata da Kristofer Poirier, che ha messo in mostra “Desalinizzazione innovativa a scarico zero di liquidi (ZLD) per il recupero di minerali con energia solare e geotermica”.”

Con questo approccio, il team affronta la scarsità d'acqua attraverso:

  • Combinare l'energia solare e geotermica per alimentare i processi di desalinizzazione,
  • Raggiungere vicino a 100% recupero dell'acqua e recuperare minerali preziosi, come il carbonato di litio, dalla salamoia,
  • Ridurre i rifiuti e migliorare la sostenibilità trasformando i prodotti di scarto in minerali di elevata purezza che possono essere venduti.

Questo processo ZLD non solo riduce al minimo l'impatto ambientale, ma offre anche vantaggi economici trasformando i rifiuti in risorse preziose. Un caso di studio sull'isola di Tenerife ha dimostrato come questo nuovo processo possa migliorare sia la redditività che la sostenibilità della desalinizzazione a energia solare e geotermica, mostrando una soluzione pronta per il futuro per le regioni in difficoltà idrica.

Un appello per una produzione idrica sostenibile

Le presentazioni al SolarPACES hanno messo in evidenza l'importanza di estrazione di salamoia per migliorare la redditività dei progetti di desalinizzazione. Estraendo minerali preziosi e ottenendo uno scarico di liquidi pari a zero, il team Net Zero della Teesside University sta aprendo la strada a processi di desalinizzazione più sostenibili e redditizi. Questo lavoro è cruciale per affrontare la scarsità d'acqua a livello globale e ridurre le emissioni di carbonio, poiché il processo integra tecnologie di cattura del carbonio nei sistemi di desalinizzazione.

Kristofer Poirier ha condiviso il suo entusiasmo dopo la presentazione dell'innovativo processo ZLD, esprimendo la sua gratitudine nei confronti dei Centro per l'innovazione dell'industria Net Zero e tutti i partecipanti all'evento SolarPACES.

“È stata una grande opportunità per incontrare alcuni dei maggiori esperti mondiali di energia solare a concentrazione e di calore di processo industriale”.”

ha osservato, sottolineando l'importanza della collaborazione per far progredire gli sforzi di sostenibilità globale.

Guardare avanti: L'impegno dell'Università di Teesside per un'economia a zero emissioni

La ricerca presentata al SolarPACES è solo una parte dei più ampi sforzi della Teesside University per raggiungere le emissioni nette zero. Attraverso il suo Centro per l'innovazione dell'industria Net Zero, L'università continua a spingersi alle frontiere dell'energia rinnovabile, della sostenibilità idrica e dell'efficienza dei processi industriali.

Il team è intenzionato a collaborare con partner industriali e ricercatori di tutto il mondo per scalare queste innovazioni e avere un impatto sul mondo reale. Con ogni scoperta, ci avvicinano a un futuro in cui energia pulita e rinnovabile alimenta non solo il nostro fabbisogno di elettricità, ma anche processi essenziali come la desalinizzazione.

Italy's Solar Thermal Legacy

Historical and Modern Achievements in CSP

Italy has been at the forefront of solar thermal technology for over a decade. The Archimede plant, inaugurated in 2010, was the first CSP demo plant in Italy to utilize molten salt for heat transfer and storage in a parabolic trough system. This pioneering project set the stage for future advancements in the field.

In recent years, Italy has continued to lead the way with the commissioning of its first commercial CSP plant and several others in advanced stages of construction. This blend of historical innovation and modern progress makes Italy a fitting host for the 30th SolarPACES Conference, where tradition and cutting-edge technology converge.

DESOLINATION partners have just held their 4th progress meeting at Lund University!

DESOLINATION partners have just held their 4th progress meeting at Lund University!

Credentials: Hilde Skar Olsen, Lunds Tekniska Högskola

Once again, DESOLINATION project partners came together to share their progress and coordinate their next steps. This time, our consortium had the pleasure of being hosted by the Membrane Group of the University of Lund in Sweden, for a hybrid meeting!

The DESOLINATION project began in 2021 and aims to build a unique plant producing fresh water from waste heat recovered from concentrating solar power (CSP) plants. The demonstrator will be sent to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for testing in 2025.

After reviewing all our progress, our team had the chance to visit the laboratories of the Membrane Group at Lund University, where they will test the membrane desalination concept on pilot scale.

This physical meeting was great opportunity to organize discussion groups between two of our workpackages dealing with the optimization of the CSP thermal cycle for desalination and how to optimize desalination processes.

Many thanks to all the partners for these valuable exchanges, which help move the project forward!

Together, let’s demonstrate how concentrated solar power can be coupled with an advanced desalination system to produce freshwater!

Join our “New developments in membranes” online workshop

Join our “New developments in membranes” online workshop

In the last days, our project member, Prof. Frank Lipnizki from the Department of Chemical Engineering of Lund University (Sweden) has had the opportunity to organise a workshop on “New Membrane Developments” with some great international speakers.

The online workshop is free-of-charge and took place on Thursday 7th of December from 9:00 – 11:00am.

The aim of the workshop is to provide an overview on recent developments of membrane with focus on water and wastewater. For this, the LUND team has invited some of the leading researchers in the field from Japan, Egypt, India and Sweden.

Membranes are the centre of all the stages of the desalination process, nanofiltration (NF) pre-treatment, Forward Osmosis (FO) and Membrane Distillation (MD) processes. In DESOLINATION, modelling and small-scale testing activities will target the optimization of all steps of hybrid membrane separations. First, NF membranes will be used to reduce fouling and scaling effect in FO. Then, the FO separation membrane will be fine-tuned to ensure control over high water flux in combination with low reverse flux from the draw to the feed solution and thus maximize the efficiency and use of the osmotic pressure difference between the seawater and the draw solution. Lastly, the MD separation membrane needs to optimize the removal of pure water from the draw solution and must therefore be adapted to the chemical and physical properties of the draw solution designed for thermal heat recovery, as well as to the temperature and pressure conditions required for the VMD recovery process.

AGENDA

09:00 – Welcome (Prof. Frank Lipnizki, Lund University, Sweden)

09:05  – Prof. Takeo Yamaguchi (Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan): Modification of antifouling membrane surfaces

09:30 – Prof. Marwa Shalaby (National Research Centre Cairo, Egypt):  Water shortage and membrane applications

09:55 – Prof. Sabu Thomas (Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala, India): Polysaccharide based membranes for water purification: Recent advances

10:20 – Prof. (assoc.) Naser Tavajohi (Umeå University, Sweden): A greener approach to PVDF membrane production

10:45 – Final Discussion (ALL)

11:00 – End

Meeting ID: 335 628 157 200
Passcode: y3oLXa

ENLIT Europe 2023 – the DESOLINATION project was exhibiting at the energy forum!

ENLIT Europe 2023 – the DESOLINATION project was exhibiting at the energy forum!

From November 28 to 30, the DESOLINATION project had the opportunity to exhibit at #EnlitEurope 2023, an end-to-end, inclusive and ever-growing forum addressing all aspects of the energy agenda in Paris Expo Porte de Versailles.

An excellent opportunity for our EU-funded projects (participating in programmes such as Horizon Europe, Life and CEF), to showcase our achievements and results to energy investors and other stakeholders, enabling a basis for discussion for the implementation of sustainable measures in the field of energy transition.

Our team, represented by Damien Serret from TEMISTh, Lola Mosseri-Lefebvre and Solène Fovelle from Euroquality, was delighted to meet partner organisations from various EU-funded projects at Enlit Europe 2023 and tell them more about how additive manufacturing can help improve energy efficiency to save CO2 and produce fresh water at 📍𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝟳. 𝟮.𝗛𝟴𝟬-𝟮𝟬 (Pavilion 7 – Entrance A2).

On the third floor, in the Decarbonation section, our project partner Aalborg CSP A/S, represented by Miguel Herrador Moreno, also took the opportunity to promote the project and explain its role as responsible for overseeing the development of the plant’s concentrated solar power (CSP) desalination system.

Having developed the first desalination system powered by concentrated solar power, Aalborg CSP A/S is responsible for overseeing and supporting the development of the plant to ensure its industrial potential for post-project use.

During the Hub Sessions, the projects participating in the EU Projects Zone will share our best practices, findings and technologies.

29 Nov 2023

EU Projects Zone Hub – Theatre 2 (Hall 7.2)

EU Projects – ETIPs Forum

On Wednesday, DESOLINATION, represented by Damien Serret from project partner TEMISth, took part in a hub session promoted by the ETIPs FORUM focusing on the role of Research & Innovation (R&I) in the deployment of renewable energies (RES) and enhanced energy storage capacities.

An interactive discussion will brainstorm and debate possible ways to promote the market uptake of key energy technologies pivotal for increasing RES share at the European and national levels and to ensure that Member States align with the latest EU policy requirements.

The debate will see the participation of ETIP Hydropower, ETIP Bioenergy and Batteries Europe, the European Energy Research Alliance (EERA), and the European project Energetic.

About ENLIT

Launched in 2017, The EU Projects Zone has welcomed a growing number of EU funded projects showcasing their findings at our annual Conference and Exhibition, involving hundreds of partners and contributing to an engaging programme.

Membrane Desalination 2023 (MEMDES2023)

Membrane Desalination 2023 (MEMDES2023)

Join the DESOLINATION project partners at the 6th International Conference on Desalination using Membrane Technology in Sitges (Spain) from 19th to 22nd November 2023 to discuss the latest developments in desalination using membrane technology!

Three of our project partners Nadin Al-Jariry, Jonas Hedlund from the Department of Chemical Engineering at Luleå University of Technology, Muhammad Suleman from Lund University, and Irena Petrinić, Ross D. Jansen-van Vuuren, Thomas Luxbacher, and Hermina Bukšek from the University of Maribor, had the opportunity to present our project to leading academic researchers, scientists and engineers from the membrane desalination sector and associated industries, as well as to representatives of governmental organizations, international agencies and aid organizations.

The Univeristy of Maribor presented ‘Thermo-responsive Polyalkylene Glycol-based draw solutions for forward osmosis in seawater desalination‘ as a poster contribution. 

Together with Lund University, they also gave an oral presentation focusing on ‘Modeling forward osmosis-membrane distillation hybrid process for seawater desalination: flux prediction and process optimization‘ co-prepared by Suleman Muhammad, Al-Rudainy Basel, Petrinić Irena, and Frank Lipnizki.

Presentation extracted from the event website

Growing population, changing climate and increasing urbanisation require increasing freshwater supply and the sustainable water usage for industries and agriculture is of top priority. One of the most viable solutions is to tap from the seawater and wastewater. Membrane technologies have been established as the golden standard for desalination to address the global deficit for clean water. However, it is still expensive, which is one of the main obstacles for prevalent adoption of membranes.

Innovation is key to reduce the energy consumption and the total cost. This can be advanced by developing high performance reverse osmosis (RO) and nanofiltration (NF) membranes, robust module and process design, as well as other novel desalination technologies. We have seen promise in breaking the permselectivity trade-off using state-of-the-art nanomaterials. Biomimetic single ion channel and artificial water channel have shown exciting results in bench tests. The Sixth International Conference on Membrane Desalination 2023 (MEMDES 2023) is the dedicated forum to disseminate the cutting-edge research and development in this regard.