Team:SCAU-China/Modeling

Given that our project involves both electricity generation and desalination, our modeling is based on two parts. Not only do we analyze our results from experiments, but also we gather some information from corporations to estimate the cost and efficiency in desalination industry. Especially, we focus on the relationship between input and output of desalination industry.

1.Desalination Industry Cost

In the past few years, over 60 percent of desalination companies are using reverse osmosis (RO) membrane to produce fresh water from sea, because of its relatively low cost and promising salt rejection.
However, we try to improve the electrodeionisation (EDI) techniques on desalination by MDC (Microbial Desalination Cells) device. And here we compare our MDC with the traditional RO process.
As we know, for a desalination station, the initial period of construction depends on the cost on building and preliminary tests in labs. Yet, as time goes by, both the cost of desalination and the production of water will maintain steady.
There are many factors that affect the relationship between input and output, but after initial analysis, we narrow into four key factors, including physical device (Dev), human resources (HR), electricity (Elec) and chemicals (Che).

2.Efficiency of MDC desalination device

Due to lack of direct evidences of the MDC application in desalination industry at the time being, our modeling analysis was also conducted based on MDC physical device rather than the characteristic factors of desalination industry. By analyzing data from our electricity generation experiment, we built three models showing the relationship between the device cost, desalination efficiency and their combination.

The device cost consists of cell, electrodes, insulator and membrane.
At the beginning, most parts of the physical device are stable and in good status. However, the ion membranes are consumable and, as time goes by, need to be changed every two years.

The efficiency of electricity generation

Notes: Water production (WP), time (t) physical device (Dev), human resourse (HR), electricity (Elec) and chemical (Che).

Fig. 1 A electricity production model of MFC The electricity production is based on a desalination experiment with desalination rate is over 99%.

The efficiency of water desalination and combinations of electricity, water production and cost

Notes: Electricity (E)

Fig. 2 A relationship model between the water and electricity production in MDC The water production is based on a desalination experiment with desalination rate is over 99%.

Fig. 3 A relationship model between the water production and cost in MDC Two factors device cost and desalinated fresh water production are combined in this modeling.