Western Australia is close to using geothermal and waste heat energies to desalinate water and one day power whole cities according to the WA Geothermal Centre of Excellence (WAGCoE).
New funding from the National Centre of Excellence in Desalination Australia (NCEDA) will see the application of Multi-Effect Distillation (MED) technology applied to remote and industrial areas that produce or have access to waste heat.
A form of desalination used widely in Saudi Arabia, MED uses thermal energy from an initial heat source to evaporate saline water in a heat exchanger.
Previous research by WAGCoE focused on priming the technology behind MED, waste heat and geothermal energy capture.
The second and current project involves transforming this technology into applications that are beneficial for communities.
Founder of WAGCoE Winthrop Professor Klaus Regenauer-Lieb says MED and waste heat applications for rural communities that drink saline ground water are currently feasible.
“People in those communities could use the small scale MED plant that we have and latch it on to a diesel generator,” Prof Regenauer-Lieb says.
This would enable waste heat from diesel generators to be used to desalinate ground water where there are limited power and transportation opportunities.
The second tier of research involving the use of industrial and mining sites’ waste heat to desalinate water, is well underway and has been taken to industry.
“Mining sites have electricity plants, or in aluminium refineries have heat plants that generate heat by burning coal.”
“We can harvest that waste heat in the same way as we suggest for the small community but on a much larger scale with gigalitres of water produced per year.”
The third and largest tier of research will target the use of geothermal energy from hot sedimentary aquifers (HSA), recognised by the International Energy Agency as the most cost effective low emissions energy source.
Prof Regenauer-Lieb says large investment costs and consequent high risk is stopping industry tapping into this resource.
WAGCoE, UWA, Curtin University and CSIRO along with the State and Federal government are investigating WA’s deep hot aquifiers to draw on this clean energy source.
A project to drill wells into the aquifer underneath Technology Park in Bentley will be one of the few HSA research facilities operating under live conditions in the world.
Water Corporation, Department of Water and the Pilbara Cities Office of Department of Regional Development and Lands are stakeholders in the rural and industry applications of the project.
“Heat as a commodity is a completely overlooked opportunity—we throw it away we don’t really have an appreciation of heat,” Prof Regenauer-Lieb says.
