Water Desalination at Very Low Cost
Global warming is threatening life on earth and millions of people in developing countries still have little or no access to basic human needs, such as clean water, adequate sanitation or electricity. In this context, SCIENTECHNIX (http://www.scientechnix.com) decided to leverage its scientific expertise in order to create a groundbreaking solution by exploring renewable energy from the most abundant energy source on earth, which is water. This French consultancy firm is the owner of the new water and desalination tools H2E (Hydro-Extracted Energy). Thanks to an evaporation process combining water and atmospheric pressure, H2E allows energy production on mass scale. With the same technology, it is also possible to extract drinking-water from seawater, brackish water or polluted water. Because of its low running costs, this solution can be implemented almost everywhere, including in developing areas.
The collaboration with SCIENTECHNIX was initiated in 2017 in order to test this new seawater desalination method, and an experimental apparatus was built to verify the method effectiveness. The tests, carried out between 2017 and 2019, confirmed the method feasibility and showed that its implementation does not present any insurmountable technical problem or risk of uncontrollable failure. Between 2019 and 2022, a code was developed allowing the design and the sizing of a water desalination unit using this new method. From available physical parameters (such as the available amount of waste heat, temperature, etc.), the code generates the main characteristics of the desalination unit: dimensions of the heat exchangers, evaporator, condenser, and tanks, parameters of the transfer pumps, fresh water flowrate, and electricity consumption.
As a natural next step, a small-scale pilot unit at of a desalination and water purification plant is planned to be built in France before bringing the technology at large industrial scale. In this context, SCIENTECHNIX is interested in new materials that would be most suitable (in terms of effectiveness and cost) for the heat exchangers and condensers to be later used at mass scale, which is the current focus point of the project. Interested students are expected to conduct first a literature review of polymers and composite materials meeting the required physical properties, then measure the thermal conductivity of selected materials specimens and carry out heat resistance and hydrophobicity tests.
Desired Disciplines
Mechanical Engineering
Chemical Engineering
Petroleum Engineering
Materials Science
Thermal Science
Team Leaders