Insulated Concrete Form (ICF) Foundation as Solar Thermal Energy Storage Integrated with Reverse Osmosis/Thermal Water Desalination Plant for Cold Climate

Reverse osmosis (RO) and thermal water desalination are considered as the most effective water treatment techniques. In reverse osmosis water treatment, a preheating step can help to improve water production by reducing the compressor pumping power. In thermal water desalination, thermal energy is needed in different parts to increase the water temperature for the evaporator step. This paper presents an innovative approach to using insulated concrete form (ICF) foundations as a solar thermal energy storage system in conjunction with reverse osmosis or thermal water desalination plant in cold climates. The proposed system combines renewable energy and desalination technology to provide a sustainable solution for water scarcity in remote areas. The ICF foundation serves as a heat storage, which stores excess heat generated by solar thermal collectors during the day. It releases it during the night to meet the heating needs of the water desalination plant. Two different ICF-based systems are modeled and simulated using TRNSYS software and compared with a system without thermal energy storage to investigate the advantages of ICF-based systems. It is shown that the ICF-based system has 33% and 43% higher solar fraction and collector efficiency, respectively, than a base case system with a solar thermal collector. It is shown that the intermittency of sunlight is compensated by means of thermal storage, and the system is a viable solution for the water desalination preheating process.