System architecture and optimization to support variability and flexibility in design

The coupling of the desalination process with solar technology is a complex problem. As various types of desalination processes and solar technologies have been developed, the selection of the best combination requires several design criteria. Capital costs, operation and maintenance costs, plant site, salinity of seawater, environmental impacts, and water quantity and quality requirements are examples of the design criteria involved in selecting a suitable desalination process. On the other hand, the selection of a suitable solar system is governed by a number of factors such as plant configuration, energy storage, location, working fluids, etc. Moreover, when integrating the solar technology and desalination processes, more requirements and constraints arise. A generic design would reduce the cost of engineering studies and the time to market thanks to the reuse of existing designs, and the ability to adapt a technical solution according to a given context (the best architectures according to a context (both spatial and temporal)). We use a design framework, completed by multi-objective, multidisciplinary optimization models in order to manage variability (space — different locations then different natural environment characteristics mainly sea water quality, solar radiation and dust) and flexibility (time-increase of demand overtime).