Abstract
The Mediterranean region presents a surplus in renewable energy but limited water availability. Desalination confronts water scarcity and secure appropriate quality and quantity of water for diverse applications such as irrigation and drinking. So, a challenge arises: How to establish and operate desalination plants minimizing their environmental footprint along with the corresponding life-cycle costs? This work paves the path towards a concrete and easy-to-implement response to this challenge. This is accomplished through an open-source publicly available Geographical Information System Platform that has been recently developed. Initially, the platform, called DES2iRES, determines the most favorable location for the establishment of a desalination plant based on renewable energy sources availability in its vicinity. Then, the platform takes a step forward and designs the optimal arrangement of the renewable energy source and desalination systems. In order to carry out these tasks effectively, three independent modules operate in parallel within the DES2iRES platform following an interoperable schema. In the present study, emphasis is given to the geo-information module although the main tasks carried out by the other modules are also described. The benefits of using the DES2iRES platform to design a desalination plant powered with renewable energy sources is demonstrated in a theoretical scenario for two study areas in Greece and Tunisia. Finally, constrains in extending platform’s operations are discussed along with future plans to cope those by incorporating diverse data sources to enhance the efficiency of the desalination plant design.
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Funding
The work presented in this paper has been implemented within the framework of the research project DES2iRES: DESign of DESalination systems based on optimal usage of multiple Renewable Energy Sources (ERANETMED NEXUS-14-049) supported by the ERA-NET Initiative Euro-Mediterranean Cooperation through ERANET joint activities and beyond (ERANETMED) under the topic ERANETMED Energy-Water nexus. In Greece, this work was funded by the Operational Program Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation 2014–2020 (co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund) and managed by the Greek General Secretariat of Research and Technology, Ministry of Education, Research, and Religious Affairs of Greece under the project DES2iRES (T3EPA-00017) of the ERANET action. In Tunisia, this work was funded by the Ministry of Higher Education Scientific Research and TIC TUNISIA. This support is gratefully acknowledged.
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Responsible Editor: Hesham El-Askary
This paper was selected from the 1st Conference of the Arabian Journal of Geosciences (CAJG), Tunisia 2018
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Petrakis, G., Tripolitsiotis, A., Koutroulis, E. et al. Geo-informatics for optimal design of desalination plants using renewable energy sources: the DES2iRES platform paradigm. Arab J Geosci 13, 1012 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-020-06026-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-020-06026-x