Seawater in Egypt could be turned into drinking water using biomass energy as a source of heat in a new collaborative project from academics at the University of Sheffield UK and Port Said University in Egypt.
The unique two year project will see academics from the world-leading Energy 2050 Institute partner with Egyptian experts to develop a system that could provide fresh and safe water to poor and rural communities.
Egypt's growing population and scarcity of water resources means that freshwater supplies are becoming increasingly stressed.
Desalination technologies, which produce drinkable water from seawater, offer an alternative source of water but at a high energy cost. Renewable solar energy has been used extensively in these technologies but is not consistent due to not enough sunlight on cloudy days and at night.
A hybrid system using biogas and solar is an entirely new technology with only a handful of studies being attempted so far. There are several options for the integration of the hybrid energy system and the desalination process and the process will explore both thermal and electrically based freshwater production systems.
The collaborative team will investigate whether biogas produced from biological matter - such as cattle manure - could be used as a feasible backup to solar. At the same time, the team will find the optimum way of integrating the two technologies to maximise fresh water production.
The project will involve a survey of biogas resources in Egypt, a model-based design and optimisation of the hybrid desalination system and will investigate the operational strategies to ensure cost-effective and reliable drinking water supply to rural communities.
The team hope that the hybridisation of biogas and solar energy sources will lead to more reliable and flexible energy production but also will be cheaper than using a single renewable energy technology alone, given that both biomass and solar energy are in abundance in Egypt.
Dr Mark Walker, Research Associate at Energy 2050, said: "The first part of the project will see us look at how to maximise fresh water production at the lowest cost. We'll also be investigating how different wastes can help us to produce the most energy to supply the system.
"Our project could provide continuous production of fresh water to rural areas, at a low cost and smaller carbon footprint than current technologies."
A pilot demonstration system will be built in Egypt and will be monitored by the joint UK/Egyptian team to assess its performance. The team hope to install integrated desalination systems in poor and rural communities of Egypt like Sinai, Nile-Delta and Upper Egypt.
Dr Mohamed Hammam, Assistant Professor at Port Said University, said: "This project is important from many perspectives. Beside the technological and economical benefits, it allows researchers from two institutes with famous experience in the field of renewable energy and combustion to work closely together."
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The project has been funded by two programmes: the British Council's Newton Fund Institutional Links programme which helps UK institutions build strong and sustainable relationships and helps to promote economic development and social welfare of partner countries, and Science and Technology Development Fund in Egypt (STDF), the main organisation of funding research and development projects of Egyptian universities and research institutes.
The University of Sheffield
With almost 27,000 of the brightest students from over 140 countries, learning alongside over 1,200 of the best academics from across the globe, the University of Sheffield is one of the world's leading universities.
A member of the UK's prestigious Russell Group of leading research-led institutions, Sheffield offers world-class teaching and research excellence across a wide range of disciplines.
Unified by the power of discovery and understanding, staff and students at the university are committed to finding new ways to transform the world we live in.
Sheffield is the only university to feature in The Sunday Times 100 Best Not-For-Profit Organisations to Work For 2017 and was voted number one university in the UK for Student Satisfaction by Times Higher Education in 2014. In the last decade it has won four Queen's Anniversary Prizes in recognition of the outstanding contribution to the United Kingdom's intellectual, economic, cultural and social life.
Sheffield has six Nobel Prize winners among former staff and students and its alumni go on to hold positions of great responsibility and influence all over the world, making significant contributions in their chosen fields.
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For further information, please visit: http://www.sheffield.ac.uk
Energy 2050
One of the UK's largest energy research institutes based at the University of Sheffield, our initiative focuses on energy innovation and knowledge exchange and brings together more than 120 academics, and 250 PhD students. It's a research institute that goes beyond traditional research boundaries by delivering innovations to power producers and major consumers with technology providers, focused on competitiveness and the de-risking of large scale investment in new technologies both in the UK and internationally.
For further information, please visit: http://www.energy2050.ac.uk