Mexico UNAM Students Work on Desalination System Mexico News Daily
go to original May 13, 2015

A desalination system that doesn’t require electricity and can be used in dry, coastal communities is under development by students of the National Autonomous University.

The university’s Engineering Desalination and Alternative Energies Institute is testing out a laboratory prototype for the first geothermal modular desalination system to be developed in Mexico, and is also in the process of obtaining a patent.

The prototype, powered by clean geothermal energy, is up to 20% more efficient than current technologies and can be used in coastal communities that do not have electricity.

The technical coordinator of the institute, Héctor Miguel Aviña Jiménez, said they are looking for desalination processes which could work for and with the variety of renewable energy resources the Baja California peninsula offers, such as solar, wind, geothermal, tides and currents.

Baja’s natural resources makes geothermal energy the simplest and most beneficial solution to for the region, which is full of geological faults that produce cracks, fractures, and landslides that generate heat and with its proximity to seawater can be leveraged in sites such as Ensenada, Puertecitos, Los Cabos, La Paz, San Felipe and San Quintín.

The desalination system employs a process of reverse osmosis through heat exchangers where seawater evaporates and condenses. The heat is provided by the hot liquid from geothermal wells or ponds.

Read the rest at Mexico News Daily

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