An overview of solar thermal desalination technologies

Solar energy has a very promising role to play in addressing water scarcity problems through thermal desalination processes around the world. Direct solar desalination uses solar energy to produce distillate directly in the solar collector whereas indirect solar desalination combines conventional desalination techniques, such as multistage flash desalination (MSF), vapor compression (VC), reverse osmosis (RO), membrane distillation (MD) and electrodialysis with solar collectors for heat generation. This paper describes several desalination technologies which could be integrated into solar thermal energy systems.