Project Oveview
This report summarises the adsorption desalination project Stage 1 in which a research and demonstration plant has been designed, fabricated, and operated as an adsorption chiller to demonstrate the possibilities of adsorption technology for application in the desalination of recycled water.
The project’s four milestones covering planning, designing, fabrication, and operation of the plant are summarised and together with this report identify the potential benefits of the technology, what further research and development is required, and what is necessary to attract funding from a manufacturing industry.
The plant has demonstrated the potential to desalinate approximately 450 litres of potable water per day, and while this is an encouraging achievement for the early operation of the plant, it falls considerably short of the output from a reverse osmosis plant.
The project has identified areas in which the plant efficiency could be considerably improved upon. It is recognised that research in the technology is in its infancy and not all of the potential benefits have been tested. The project has identified that the technology has no definite constraints that would detract it from an application with recycled water and that the technology would benefit considerably if the plant was firstly operated with saline feedwater, which could take another three months, then as a pilot plant for industry evaluation.
