CIEMAT-Plataforma Solar de Almería (PSA)-DESAL
TA17 – CIEMAT-PSA-DESAL
Location
Ctra. de Senés, km. 4,5
04200 Tabernas, Spain
Description
The Plataforma Solar de Almería (PSA) is a major European scientific facility recognised by the European Commission and the world’s largest research and development (R&D) centre focused on solar thermal concentrating systems, solar desalination and photochemistry. It is ideal for developing, evaluating, demonstrating, and transferring solar concentrating technologies for both thermal and chemical processes. The PSA provides a research environment with insolation and climate similar to equatorial developing countries, along with Europe’s largest scientific facilities. It features unique solar concentrating and water treatment facilities globally.
Solar Thermal Desalination by Multi-Effect Distillation:
This facility enables experimental validation of MED processes with hot water instead of saturated steam, allowing various temperature settings for brine and condenser temperatures. It also supports research on new materials for MED heat exchange surfaces and automatic control research through a fully-controllable valve system.
Efficiency Improvement with Absorption Heat Pumps:
This facility allows the operation of a coupled MED-DEAHP system at different temperatures, validating simulation models and researching control algorithms. The 100-kW DEAHP prototype uses low-pressure steam from the MED plant's last effect, powered by either a 230-m² solar field or a propane gas boiler.
Solar thermal desalination by membrane distillation:
Designed for the pilot-scale evaluation of solar thermal MD prototypes, this facility enables performance assessment of MD modules and research in automatic control. It features two solar fields: a 20m² field with five collectors in series and a 40m² field with large-aperture collectors, allowing for stationary or direct solar energy supply.
Innovative Membrane Desalination Technologies:
The PSA desalination lab has three bench-scale units for MD testing, allowing membrane testing under different configurations and conditions. It also includes a 2-stage FO and PRO unit with adjustable hydraulic circuits for assessing new FO membranes and technology development.
Low-Temperature Solar Collectors for Thermal Water Treatment:
The AQUASOL-II is a large flat-plate solar field with 60 collectors, totalling 606 m² and 323 kWth output. It includes four independent loops with 14 collectors each and one smaller loop. Each loop can operate independently, connecting to individual heat exchangers for testing with low-temperature desalination systems and supporting automatic control development and dynamic modelling.
Testing Capabilities
The facility supports research and validation for solar thermal desalination using Multi-Effect Distillation (MED) and Membrane Distillation (MD), efficiency improvements with absorption heat pumps, innovative membrane desalination technologies, and low-temperature solar collectors for thermal water treatment.
Technical Equipment
- Solar thermal desalination by multi-effect distillation (MED) for model validation and material research
- Efficiency improvement of low-temperature distillation using absorption heat pumps (DEAHP)
- Solar thermal desalination by membrane distillation (MD) with pilot-scale evaluation
- Innovative membrane desalination technologies (MD, FO) with bench-scale units
- Low-temperature solar collectors (AQUASOL-II) for thermal water treatment and system testin
Additional information
Technology Readiness Level: 7 or above
Special considerations: N/A
Technology clusters: CSP/STE, Energy Storage
Website: https://www.psa.es
Availability: All year
Provision of tools to prepare data sets in a FAIR way: Yes
