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COMMON PART

Project Number22-19-20011

Project titleMethodology of multiparametric optimization of desalination plant for ground and marine mineral waters, based on renewable energy sources

Project LeadSolomin Evgeny

AffiliationFederal State Autonomous Educational Institution of Higher Education "South Ural State University (national research university)",

Research area 09 - ENGINEERING SCIENCES, 09-402 - Hydropower engineering, new and renewable power sources

KeywordsExergy; Thermodynamic exergetic analysis; Desalination; Renewable Energy Sources

PROJECT CONTENT

Annotation
The interdisciplinary project is to conduct fundamental and applied research with the further development of a prototype of an innovative plant and technology for desalination of groundwater mineral and marine waters based on a combined organic Rankine cycle with elements of the Kalina cycle, due to thermodynamic heat and mass transfer with solar collectors with power supply from photovoltaic converters (and/or optionally generators of wind power plants). RELEVANCE The project covers three main areas of vital importance for humanity: the production of electric and thermal energy, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and the preparation of clean water. The topic proposed by the authors relates to complex methods of mathematical and physical modeling of combined electric-thermal-technological facilities in the field of water desalination and renewable energy. The authors plan to develop a multifunctional installation for the production of electric and thermal energy using the heat of groundwater for their subsequent desalination at the expense of their own produced energy. This problem is relevant for areas with a shortage of both electricity and water resources, observed almost everywhere in the world. According to statistics, no more than 7% of the world's population have access to clean drinking water, and the problem has not been solved for centuries - for example, Israel has been carrying clean water by tankers from the rivers of Turkey since the middle of the XX century, and in India and Africa people are dying due to lack of drinking water (every 2 minutes in the world 1 child dies from lack of drinking water or poisoning), despite the enormous local underground mineral-water and solar-wind-energy resources. In Russia, this problem is associated with a growing shortage of clean water in all regions without exception, especially for large megacities. However, in rural areas, the shortage of fresh water is beginning to be felt more acutely due to the pollution and depletion of traditional water sources (wells and boreholes), the dilapidation of power grids (providing electricity for water supply), as well as as a result of climate changes leading to shallowing of reservoirs. Moreover, localization and autonomization of energy and water sources is preferable today, since centralized electricity and water supply in the world is increasingly becoming unclaimed, vandally vulnerable and/or unprofitable, - there is an acute global problem with the supply of electric networks to people's places of residence – distribution networks are either absent or for the most part significantly dilapidated, and in some cases are subject to periodic destruction and theft. And water sources are subject to increasingly frequent terrorist threats. The proposed scientific methods make it possible to reduce economic and socio-environmental costs in the design and operation of local autonomous complexes for desalination of groundwater to the level of drinking quality with electricity supply due to renewable solar energy. At the moment, the authors have a prototype of a heat pump plant in stock, which needs to be integrated into a multi-purpose complex for generating electric energy and desalination of groundwater and marine mineral waters. The concept of a water desalination module using a membrane method and an evaporative method has been developed. The systems of electrical and thermal supply on solar modules and collectors are well known, but the authors of the project have a new innovative design of a photovoltaic-thermal module combining the functions of a PV module and a collector, significantly increasing the overall efficiency of the electrical and thermal supply system. There are a number of subject publications of partners in Q1 journals – one of the latest: A special issue of the journal Energies "Special Issue "Solar PV, Thermal, Concentrator and Hybrid Power Systems", a total of 6 articles in this issue: (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/energies/special_issues/PV_Power_Systems ). During the project, a methodological concept will be developed for optimization within the framework of the exergetic method of thermodynamic analysis. This analysis is supposed to be carried out on the basis of experimental data obtained on a prototype of a heat pump installation, an electricity supply system and a desalination system. Such non-autonomous complexes are installed at industrial enterprises for the extraction of groundwater. However, their energy efficiency is extremely low. According to the fundamental principles of physics, the efficiency of the flow consists of exergy and anergy, which must be taken into account when optimizing. A deep fundamental analysis of the research will be carried out, the main stages of the development of optimization methods of thermodynamic analysis of thermal engineering devices and thermodynamic processes in the energy industry will be highlighted. The most promising developments in the field of technical thermodynamics and optimization problems in the field of thermodynamic systems and complexes in combination with electric power equipment will also be identified. The relevance of the project for the Russian Federation is determined by its focus on solving the tasks formulated by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated December 1, 2016 No. 642 "On the Strategy of Scientific and Technological Development of the Russian Federation". SCIENTIFIC NOVELTY Scientific novelty is represented by new knowledge on the disclosure and development of exergetic methods for optimizing the "exergy-anergy" ratio with the creation of appropriate computer models, methods for optimizing the distribution of energy flows between the components of the thermodynamic system, improving the efficiency of the installation as a whole. The technical novelty consists in the use of a combined photovoltaic converter (FEP) for the power supply of both a heat pump and desalination directly, using low-potential groundwater heat and the preparation of source water using solar collectors combined with FEP. A deep thermodynamic comparative analysis of the efficiency of the solar collector – solar module systems and an integrated photovoltaic-thermal system, including a photovoltaic converter and a collector that removes heat from the module and thereby increases the efficiency of the PV converter with simultaneous heating of water for subsequent evaporation, will also be carried out. Moreover, a comparative analysis will also be carried out in terms of determining the exergetic efficiency of the evaporator and the membrane desalinator. The exergetic losses will be calculated not only for the ground heat pump itself with refrigerant R407C, but also for the electric generating and desalination components of the system. The research methodology consists in a comprehensive assessment of exergetic flows, their optimization using new methods of approximation of piecewise linear functions, as well as the development of prerequisites for the use of anergy as one of the components of a new type of analysis of the efficiency of low-potential energy sources. As a result of processing experimental data, the values of Coefficient of performance (COP), exergetic temperature for the lower heat source, for the upper heat source, exergetic efficiency of individual components and the installation as a whole, total losses of specific exergy of the heat pump will be obtained. STM-32 controllers with Modbus communication protocol will be used for data collection. Hydrodynamic modeling is carried out in Ansys CFX/CFD/FLUENT packages. Matlab Simulink and VisSim will be used to process experimental data. When carrying out the procedure for optimizing operating modes and selecting several modes with minimal exergetic losses, an important role is assigned to mathematical methods of processing statistical data. As a result, a method of increasing the efficiency of the heat pump will be shown, primarily based on the use of solar collectors and photovoltaic converters as the main or backup power source and optimization of exergetic losses due to the exergetic evaluation of operating modes. The authors will present the measurement errors of the parameters of the heat pump installation in the form of a 3D Gauss curve, which will become possible only with the use of new approximation methods in the processing of measurements. TECHNICAL SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM During the project, a prototype (experimental sample) of an autonomous multipurpose complex with a capacity of up to 1 kW will be created, including a photovoltaic-thermal converter (for generating electrical and thermal energy), a heat pump module (for supplying initial mineralized or seawater to a desalination plant), a desalination module (for high-speed desalination of water based on a membrane and/or evaporative method). The corresponding explanations and figures are given in Appendix 1. The project is interdisciplinary, fundamentally practical and has almost one hundred percent chances of commercialization immediately after the end of the project, with a series within 1-2 years. According to the UN, the need for such complexes is estimated at hundreds of thousands of units of equipment in various modifications, thus, the economic effect of the introduction and implementation of the developed complexes at an average cost of 25-50 thousand rubles per 1 kW of installed capacity will amount to more than 10 billion rubles. During the project, it is planned to publish at least 16 scientific articles, including at least 10 articles in Scopus / Web of Science, mainly in Q1, which reflects a 2-times excess of the terms of the tender documentation.

Expected results
SCIENTIFIC RESULTS The project assumes the creation of a new methodology, i.e. a holistic teaching on existing and newly developed exergoeconomical methods of thermodynamic analysis of energy technology systems, including heat generation and its consumption, with optimization of equipment components based on the calculation of objective functions. The developed technology is a fundamentally new scientific approach, has no analogues and is subject to publication in the scientific world and application in the practical part of the project. The practical part of the project involves carrying out scientific and practical research with the subsequent development of a method and installation for heating and desalination of groundwater in combination with an autonomous two-circuit cascade system for utilization and regeneration of heat in the technological cycle of desalination of water with a digital intelligent control system. The increased efficiency of a fully autonomous heat desalination complex is achieved by generating additional heat by solar collectors and generating electricity for system equipment using intelligent astrotracting systems based on extreme digital angular orientation control of photovoltaic converters (and solar collectors combined with them) installed on parallel kinematics platforms, as well as highly efficient multi-tiered vertical-axial wind power plants. A feature of astrotracting systems is the operation of drive devices in the field of ultra-low travel speeds, and also the mode of holding the nominal torque at zero speed is mandatory. The advantage of the wind power plants used is the absence of the need for orientation, increased wind energy utilization due to the unique multi-tiered rotor design, and the absence of the need for locking in windstorms. Various liquids will be used as the heat transfer medium of the heat recovery system (including nano-liquids, i.e. including a number of nano-additives in changing physical properties). There are no analogues of this equipment in the world, preliminary calculations show that the results will significantly exceed the level of research carried out by Western and eastern research teams. The developments are based on the basic and fundamental theories of heat and mass transfer, including the equations of thermal conductivity, convective heat transfer, radiation, diffusion exchange, movement of one- and two-phase flows of liquids and real vapors, as well as on the principles of creating electric generating devices; electric drives, electrical and mechatronic complexes based on them, namely parametric synthesis and optimization algorithms, the theory of electromechanical energy conversion and automatic control of nonlinear objects with variable parameters (including extreme digital control systems); and flow desalination systems based on reverse osmosis and/or ultra-high-speed ion flow separation. An installation implementing this scheme in conditions of increased solar radiation intensity and/or high gross wind potential (for example, in a number of Arctic latitudes) should be used in combination with solar collectors to reduce the energy dependence of the installation on coolant heating systems. Optimization of processes with the calculation of the corresponding target functions is worked out in various operating modes to cover the own needs of the organic Rankine cycle with elements of the Kalin cycle. PRACTICAL RESULTS The interdisciplinary project is to conduct fundamental and practical research with the further development of a prototype of an innovative plant and technology for desalination of groundwater mineral and marine waters based on a combined organic Rankine cycle with elements of the Kalina cycle, due to thermodynamic mass transfer with solar collectors with power supply from photovoltaic converters and/or wind power plants. The project covers three main areas of vital importance for humanity: combined production of electric and thermal energy, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and clean water treatment. SPECIFIC PROJECT RESULTS 1. A new methodology of exergoeconomical analysis, created on the basis of well-known and newly formulated methods of thermodynamic analysis of thermal power complexes, their generalization and structuring. The significance lies in the structuring and generalization of knowledge about the methods of exergoeconomical analysis, which is designed to change the idea of methodological approaches to thermodynamic analysis. 2. A new technology for desalination of groundwater mineral and marine waters based on solar collectors, a combined organic Rankine cycle with elements of the Kalina cycle, with power supply from a highly efficient energy complex based on renewable energy sources (a photovoltaic converter with an intelligent tracking system and/or a multi-tiered vertical-axial wind power plant). The importance of the technology is both theoretical and practical, in terms of the universalization of desalination of water both through traditional energy supply and through renewable sources. 3. New optimization methods and an optimized process of desalination of groundwater based on the exergoeconomical method of thermodynamic analysis of the combined organic Rankine cycle with elements of the Kalina cycle. The significance is both theoretical in terms of creating a methodology based on known and new optimization methods, and practical in terms of obtaining optimal parameters of components and equipment as a whole. 4. A new operating model sample of a desalination plant based on energy supply from renewable sources. The significance is purely practical, at the end of the project, a product with a capacity of up to 1 kW is subject to technological refinement for serial production and subsequent commercialization. The social significance of the project lies in obtaining the possibility of reducing harmful emissions into the atmosphere with almost complete utilization of heat and an increase in the volume of generation from renewable sources, with a corresponding contribution to reducing global warming of the planet. At each stage, publications are published in world-class high-ranking journals indexed by the international scientific citation systems Scopus and/or Web of Science with a 2-fold excess of the requirements of the tender documentation. Thus, the results of the project will make a noticeable and significant contribution to the solution of several world scientific problems formulated in the application for the selected scientific direction H2 from the Strategy of the NTR of the Russian Federation: The transition to environmentally friendly and resource-saving energy, the formation of new energy sources. In terms of practical use of the planned results of the project in the economy and social sphere, it can be argued that in connection with the creation of a universal optimized desalination complex based on renewable sources, the results will have long-term prospects for new high-tech developments and the creation of technologies, products and services that meet the national interests of the Russian Federation and are necessary for a significant improvement in the quality of life of the population. For the Chelyabinsk region, the significance of the project is practical and vital. In 2021, the shortage of water precipitation led to the shallowing of almost all regional reservoirs, as a result of which, in 2022, with repeated drought, a collapse with a shortage of drinking water for the city of Chelyabinsk and a number of district centers may develop, not to mention localized drinking sources such as wells in a number of settlements. The possibility of desalination of groundwater both locally and with the help of high-speed purification, also being investigated by the project, will create prerequisites for the use of ground, rain, lake and river waters. This approach can significantly improve the position of the region in terms of the development of underground and terrestrial water resources. A separate result for the Chelyabinsk Region will be the result of the project in terms of a complementary combination of a photovoltaic converter and a solar collector. Taking into account the growth of electrification of disparate farms (a number of houses and gardens are equipped with solar modules) and industrial enterprises (for example, JSC RED, Chelyabinsk) with solar power plants, this approach will accelerate the pace of equipping enterprises and residential areas with generators based on renewable energy sources.

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