Experimental analysis of the water salinity impact on the energy consumption of small desalination plants

In the present research, the topic of desalination is investigated both theoretically and experimentally. In the theoretical part, information is provided on water consumption aspects in Greece and worldwide, on the problem of water shortage globally and on the solution of desalination. In the experimental part, the pilot Reverse Osmosis (RO) unit used for the conduction of this study is presented in detail, while following that, the experimental results are analysed, mainly focusing on the energy consumption of the RO desalination unit. Additional results concerning the effect of water pressure and water salinity on the energy consumption and the clean water production flow rate of the experimental desalination unit are presented and the relative conclusions are drawn. (C) 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.