Narippaiyur Village in TN installs Solar Thermal based Desalination System

Narippaiyur, a village in Ramanathapuram District of Tamil Nadu has successfully installed a solar thermal Forward Osmosis (FO) sea water desalination system that will produce about 20,000 litres per day of fresh water produced from sea water.

IIT Madras in collaboration with Empereal – KGDS Renewable Energy have successfully established and demonstrated this system to address prevalent and emerging water challenges in Mission Mode in the village.

The drought prone area situated in the South-East corner of the State has now successfully overcome major drinking water shortage. The customized demand driven convergent water solution through FO will supply two litres of good quality drinking water per person per day for 10,000 people in the village.

The FO system facilitates high recovery, low energy consumption, potential for resource recovery, especially in solutions of high osmotic pressure, less fouling of the membrane because of low pressure operation, easier and more effective cleaning of the membrane, longer membrane life and lower operating costs.

Ramanathapuram District is severely affected by scarcity of potable water due to salinity, brackishness and also poor sources of ground water. The district of 423000 hectares has a long coastal line measuring about 265 kilometres accounting for nearly 1/4th of the total length of the coastal line of the state.

The Water Technology Initiative, Department of Science & Technology (DST) has supported this field based effort in the district through the consortium members led by Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM), KGiSL Institute of Technology (KITE), Empereal– KGDS Renewable Energy (P) and ICT Mumbai.

Source:

Narippaiyur Village in TN installs Solar Thermal based Desalination System – PiB