Techno-economic assessment of a pilot-scale plant for solar desalination based on existing plate and frame MD technology

• A 100 m3 day− 1 MD solar desalination plant full techno-economic analysis is presented
• Real operation data from plate and frame pilot-sized MD technology was used
• Three different solar technologies were considered and compared to a fossil option
• Results suggest solar MD can be competitive with PV-RO for small capacities

This work presents the results of the techno-economic analysis of a proposed 100 m3 day− 1 desalination plant based on existing plate and frame MD technology coupled with a static solar collector field as main heat supply. The experimental results of one commercial and two pre-commercial MD modules characterized previously under real operational conditions were used. Three different cost-effective solar technologies (evacuated tube collectors (ETCs), flat plate collectors (FPCs) and compound parabolic collectors (CPCs)) were considered for the analysis and the results were compared to a fossil source. For the dimensioning of the solar field, meteorological data from Almeria (South-Spain) where the experimental campaign took place were selected. A thorough economical assessment was performed to calculate the cost of water (WPC) for the different considered scenarios. The best results obtained show a WPC in the range of 10–11.30 € m− 3 for the combination of the most efficient MD module and solar collector. The fossil-driven option showed a similar (i.e. 7.19 € m− 3) yet lower WPC. Although the MD technology here analyzed is in an early stage of development, the results obtained suggest solar MD can be already competitive with PV-RO and PV-ER according to reported data for similar capacities (~ 100 m3 day− 1).