Qian Chen
Muhammad Burhan
Muhammad Wakil Shahzad
Kim Choon Ng
Hongfei Zheng- 1Institute for Ocean Engineering, Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen, China
- 2Water Desalination and Reuse Center, Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
- 3Department of Mechanical and Construction Engineering, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
- 4School of Mechanical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China
Editorial on the Research Topic
Solar desalination for small-scale decentralized applications in remote areas
Water shortage has become a global concern. It is predicted that the world water deficit will reach 2,700 billion m3/year, with 1.6 billion people suffering severe water stress. Seawater desalination is deemed the most promising source of freshwater supply, while existing desalination technologies are unsuitable for small-scale applications in remote areas due to high energy intensity and cost.
As most arid areas are abundant in solar radiation, solar desalination has great potential for decentralized operation in remote areas. This Research Topic aims to embrace various research aspects of solar desalination technologies. We invited researchers to share their unique experience and views and discuss research solutions relevant to solar desalination. After rigorous review, 4 high-quality articles contributed by 18 authors were finally accepted for their contributions to the Research Topic, covering different aspects of solar desalination.
Solar still is the earliest solar desalination technology, and the efforts to boost its performance has lasted for decades. On-going studies focus on improving the energy efficiency and productivity. Yeang et al. developed a four-stage solar distiller system integrated with the Fresnel lens. The multi-stage configuration enables condensation heat recovery, and the Fresnel lens enhances solar intensity. Yang et al. proposed a novel cone-type solar seawater still, which has the characteristics of film-wise evaporation, short mass transfer distance and enlarged condensation area. Both systems demonstrate improved performance over conventional solar stills.
Integration of solar energy with existing desalination technologies also represents a viable solution. Oh et al. presented a direct contact membrane distillation driven by a 10-kW water-to-water heat pump, and the maximum productivity was found to depend on the operation temperature. Such a system can be integrated directly with solar panels for standalone operation, and the efficiency of solar panels play a critical role. In view of this, Awoyinka et al. investigated the discrepancies in electrical outputs of mono-crystalline solar panels between Ago-Iwoye weather conditions and the manufacturer’s specified ideal conditions. Results revealed a significant reduction in maximum power output compared to the manufacturer’s stated values, underscoring the importance of considering local weather conditions during solar projects.
The 4 papers presented in this Research Topic demonstrate the diversity ongoing studies in the area. We believe the results and findings will lead to the development of more energy-efficient and cost-effective solar desalination systems, thus enabling the development of more sustainable solutions to address global water scarcity.
Author contributions
QC: Formal Analysis, Funding acquisition, Project administration, Writing–original draft, Writing–review and editing. MB: Writing–review and editing. MS: Writing–review and editing. KN: Writing–review and editing. HZ: Writing–review and editing.
Funding
The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work is partly supported by the (1) Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation Committee (2023A1515240041), and (2) Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Committee (ZDSYS20230626091459009).
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Publisher’s note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
Keywords: solar desalination, small-scale, remote areas, solar still, PV desalination
Citation: Chen Q, Burhan M, Shahzad MW, Ng KC and Zheng H (2024) Editorial: Solar desalination for small-scale decentralized applications in remote areas. Front. Energy Res. 12:1451420. doi: 10.3389/fenrg.2024.1451420
Received: 19 June 2024; Accepted: 25 June 2024;
Published: 17 July 2024.
Edited and reviewed by:
Michael Folsom Toney, University of Colorado Boulder, United StatesCopyright © 2024 Chen, Burhan, Shahzad, Ng and Zheng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Qian Chen, qian.chen@sz.tsinghua.edu.cn