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Membrane Desalination

Membrane desalination can be driven with thermal energy, at low temperatures, and for feedwater with high salinity. We are pursuing development of membranes that can directly absorb thermal energy and be hybridized with PV cells. Such an approach could create a novel package that could both desalinate water and produce electricity simultaneously.

Support

This work is supported by the U.S. Department of Interior Bureau of Reclamation.

Publications

  1. Otanicar T, Norman D, “Modeling of a hybrid photovoltaic and direct solar absorption membrane desalination system,” The 2nd Pacific Rim Thermal Engineering Conference, Maui, US, 2019.
  2. Otanicar T, Kinzer B, Smith K, “Hybrid solar energy/desalination using spectrally selective membrane distillation,” 19th International Heat Transfer Conference, Beijing China, 2018.