Solar photovoltaic-powered membrane distillation as sustainable clean energy technology in desalination
The present article discusses the application of a new technology using solar photovoltaic (PV) cell coupled with membrane distillation (MD) in the desalination of tap water. Salinity decreases the palatibility of water and causes long-term health issues. MD is the most promising technology to provide safe and clean drinking water to households and for other applications in small quantities. It consumes less energy than the existing commercial brackish water reverse osmosis (RO; pressure-driven) desalination technology (48%) used for the production of drinking water. A large population in India relies on tap water, groundwater, surface water, deep well water and municipal water for drinking and domestic utilization.