Rezaei, M; Mostafaeipour, A; Jafari, N; Naghdi-Khozani, N and Moftakharzadeh, A (2020) Wind and solar energy utilization for seawater desalination and hydrogen production in the coastal areas of southern Iran. Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology, 18(6), pp. 1951-1969. ISSN 1726-0531
Abstract
Purpose: Acute shortage of potable water and energy supplies is expected to raise in developing countries in the near future. One solid way to address these issues is to exploit renewable energy resources efficiently. Hence, this study aims to investigate wind and solar energy use in the coastal areas of southern Iran for renewable-powered seawater desalination and hydrogen production systems. Design/methodology/approach: To accomplish the aforementioned purpose, five areas most prone to the problems in Iran, namely, Mahshahr, Jask and Chabahar ports and Kish and Hormoz islands were scrutinized. To ascertain the amount of wind and solar energy available in the areas, Weibull distribution function, Angstrom–Prescott equation and HOMER software were used. Findings: The findings indicated that wind energy density in Kish was 2,014.86 (kWh/m2.yr) and solar energy density in Jask equaled to 2,255.7 (kWh/m2.yr) which possessed the best conditions among the areas under study. Moreover, three commercial wind turbines and three photovoltaic systems were examined for supplying energy needed by the water desalination and hydrogen production systems. The results showed that application of wind turbines with rated power of 660, 750 and 900 kWh in Kish could result in desalting 934,145, 1,263,339 and 2,000,450 (m3/yr) of seawater or producing 14,719, 20,896 and 31,521 (kg/yr) of hydrogen, respectively. Additionally, use of photovoltaic systems with efficiency of %14.4, %17.01 and %21.16 in Jask could desalinate 287, 444 and 464 (m3/yr) of seawater or generate 4.5, 7 and 7.3 (kg/yr) of hydrogen, respectively. Originality/value: Compared to the huge extent of water shortage and environmental pollution, there has not been conducted enough studies to obtain broader view regarding use of renewable energies to solve these issues in Iran. Therefore, this study tries to close this gap and to give other developing nations the idea of water desalination and hydrogen production via renewable energies.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | hydrogen production; seawater desalination; solar energy; wind energy |
| Index terms: | desalination, photovoltaic, renewable energy resource, efficiency, density, pollution, methodology, distribution function, coastal areas, renewable energy, solar energy, developing country, production system, seawater, water shortage, developing nation |
| Subjects: | environmental resource management, energy systems, environmental science, analytical methods, environmental health, physical geography and landforms, manufacturing engineering, performance management, research methods, water management, probability and distributions, development economics |
| Topics: | Research Practice, Geographical Context, Engineering Principles, Sustainability, Quality Management, International Construction, Urban Studies |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTA |
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