Book Description:
This book describes the solar desalination test plant in Abu Dhabi, UAE and gives a summary of its first year performance and economics. The plant has been operating successfully for 18 years supplying fresh water to the City of Abu Dhabi. The plant was commissioned in September 1984 and was running until the year 2002 when it was dismantled after fulfilling its objectives. The aim of the plant is to investigate the technical and economic feasibility of using solar desalination of seawater in providing fresh water to remote communities in the Middle East and to obtain long-term performance and reliability data on the operation of the plant. The plant has proved its technical feasibility and proved to be reliable in operation with few minor maintenance problems that required slight plant modification. Maintenance routines were established to maintain high plant performance. The economic feasibility of the plant was established by comparing the cost of water from a solar MED plant with a conventional MED plant using fossil fuel for plant capacity ranging from 100 m3/day to 1000 m3/day. It was found that the cost of water from solar MED plants is competitive with that from a conventional MED plant if the cost fuel continues to rise.

Table of Contents:
Preface
Acknowledgment
Nomenclature

Chapter 1. Introduction, pp. 1-2

Chapter 2. History of Abu Dhabi Solar Desalination Plant, pp. 3-4

Chapter 3. Description of Abu Dhabi Solar Desalination Plant, pp. 5-12

Chapter 4. Measurements and Data Acquisition System, pp. 13-18

Chapter 5. Data Analysis, pp. 19-27

Chapter 6. Weather Condition in Abu Dhabi, pp. 29-31

Chapter 7. Operating Characteristics, pp. 33-41

Chapter 8. Plant Maintenance and Modifications, pp. 43-50

Chapter 9. Simulation Program and Its Validation, pp. 51-69

Chapter 10. Evaluation of the Test Plant, pp. 71-81

Chapter 11. Economic Considerations and Comparison with Conventional MED Plants, pp. 83-90

Chapter 12. Results of the Economic Study, pp. 91-95

Chapter 13. Conclusion, pp. 97-101

References