Wave Powered Desalination System

Over 1 billion people suffer from the effects of water scarcity and a great majority of those affected live near a coastline in developing countries, on islands, and in remote communities. To satisfy the potable water needs of a rapidly growing world population, experts agree that seawater desalination on a large scale is required. However, while seawater desalination can solve many global water security issues, desalination systems typically require a connection to a strong and reliable electrical grid for their power supply. Because our target customers lack access to sufficient grid capacity and cannot afford the capital or time required to build adequate grid infrastructure, cost-effective seawater desalination systems that can operate “off grid” are needed. Near-shore ocean waves provide an inexhaustible, consistent, and widely distributed energy resource accessible to a high percentage of the world population. Resolute Marine has been developing and testing several prototypes of an oscillating flap wave energy converter since 2012 and our objective is to now couple this device to a novel seawater compatible pump for powering reverse osmosis desalination systems. The developed technology will displace environmentally damaging diesel generators which are in wide use worldwide. In Phase I RME created an integrated suite of numerical models to assess the dynamic performance of a wave-powered, reverse osmosis desalination system utilizing flap driven pumps to directly pressurize sea water for delivery to an on-shore desalination plant and companion electric “house-power” generation/energy storage plant. The proposed Phase II work will entail creating Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) testing capabilities that emulate a fully integrated wave powered desalination system at one-fifth scale. The HIL test program will validate the numerical models under a range of expected operational sea-state conditions and provide a test bed for hardware and control system developments to support planned full scale technical and commercial pilot projects. In addition to solving water security issues, wave-powered desalination plants may provide a quiet, low-cost water supply for resorts, marinas, and seaside communities interested in capitalizing on their renewable energy resources.Disaster relief organizations, including the U.S. military, will appreciate the fact that the developed technology can be deployed and fully operational within a matter of days after a catastrophic event. Additionally, the technology may be configured to provide electric power exclusively, thus enhancing the portfolio of renewable energy options available to consumers and electric power providers.