Decentralized Drinking Water Supply
According to the WHO statistics, about 7 million people die every year due to contaminated ground water. 1.4 billion people (more than one fifth of the world population) are affected by water shortage and do not have an adequate supply of potable drinking water. People living in remote rural areas or in a suburban housing scheme in developing countries are especially affected by water shortage.
In developing countries a drinking water supply of poor quality is the root of 80% of all illnesses. Through environmental pollution, population growth and an increasing water consumption per person, it is estimated that 50% of the world population will not have enough drinking water by the year 2050. Due to these facts, water purification and an adequate potable water supply are important topics which are discussed world-wide.
In developing countries the situation is intensified due to a poor or non-existent electricity grid. However, developing countries show a prevailingly high potential for the use of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind). Further, the decentralized electricity supply is often the more cost effective solution as compared to a grid-connected system.
On the large-scale, technologies for desalination and water disinfection are already installed in many different countries and are working reliably. For the application in rural areas of developing countries, however, the need for improvement still exists with regard to the energy supply and minimizing the maintenance requirements.
Among others Fraunhofer ISE develops renewable energy desalination and water disinfection systems which are designed for use in rural areas and on small islands. Fraunhofer ISE specialized in thermal procedures as well as reverse osmosis and electrodialysis.
Technologies:
Thermal processes
Distillation
example for a commercial application: Gerindtec and GIZ in south India
Electrical processes
Reverse osmosis
Electrodialysis
Links
Thermal desalination: http://www.solarspring.de/
Solar water purification in Laos: http://www.lao-ire.org/Programs/solar-waterpurification.html
PV applications for disaster relief: http://www.fsec.ucf.edu/en/consumer/disaster/index.htm
