Project Background

The chosen area of use for the desalination unit is the coastal region of North Africa and the Middle East.  As desalination has already been extensively studied in these areas, there is a wealth of information for the IPRO group to reference. From a marketing standpoint, the region is favorable, since other types of desalination methods are already employed and the concept of desalination already accepted.  Sun intensity and coastal wind speeds also make the region feasible for solar-wind hybrid energy sources. From 1955 to 1990, the number of water-scarce countries in the Middle East and North Africa rose from three to eleven (Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Algeria, Israel, the Occupied Territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen). By 2025, another seven are anticipated to be added to this list (Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Libya, Morocco, Oman and Syria).  Today, “the per capita availability of water in the Middle East is the worst in the world, representing only 33% of Asian and 15% of African levels.1” The currently employed desalination methods in the region are only an option to energy-rich countries such as Saudi Arabia and Omar, which are major oil producers. In this project, IPRO 304-e has focused on countries where these expensive and energy intensive methods are not an option, and the group has attempted to formulate a renewable energy alternative. 

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