Can I produce clean water, electricity and cooling at the same time from bio-diesel or solar?

Question:

This technology is called tricogeneration, but is seem as though not even money can buy it. There seems to be many false leads on the internet or there are lots of prototypes that have not hit the market yet. I have just spent $500,000.00 U.S.D on a water treatment plant and a seperate diesel generator to run a resort. I would be willing to pay much more for a more progressive system. Can some one put the components together and sell me a system that gives you distilled water, Power generation and utilizes the waste heat to produce either refrigeration and or air conditioning? The need for a bio-Diesel or solar electric generator that produces fresh water and cooling as a biproduct is crucial in most parts of the world. I have found a solar desalination plant on the internet that they produce in India but have not yet been able to buy them due to lack of responce from the web site contact (a very common thing on the internet). They are either booked, don't care or can't perform.V

Answer:
Excellent sustainable strategy, and yeah, it's REALLY hard to wallow through all the BS out there if you aren't sure what to look for.

I wish I had your budget for upgrades, lol. I don't even know what country you are in so I don't know if there is any govt assistance to offset the costs. And I know NOTHING of "resort finance", so I don't know what the acceptable ROI of green technology is for you.

There must be environmental engineering companies out there that specialize in what you want, but it would take a lot of "eclectic(?)" skills collected under one roof. It is difficult to give you definitive answers without knowing where your resort is located, i.e. a ski resort is going to have different energy needs than a beach resort. If you are looking for fresh water and AC I assume it is a beach resort.

Speaking of co-gen ... great way to increase the efficiency of fossil fuel based technology, but doesn't really replace it, it just uses the energy that would have been wasted. A good example on a large scale is the relationship between Bruce Nuclear and Bruce Energy Center. Some of the waste heat from electrical generation is used to heat acres of greenhouses. Have you considered a greenhouse as a source of AC? Or incorporating as much green as possible into interior spaces? It may not completely replace your AC compressors, but it will lighten the load. If you encorporate a water misting system into your greenery, the tiny water droplets will absorb a lot of heat as well. It takes much more energy for water to change state than to change temperature, so it is a good source of cooling. You can look up the terms "Latent heat of fusion" and "Latent heat of ... vaporization(?)" to learn more about the effect. That is a natural form of AC that could reduce your power consumption.

When you say water treatment plant I'm not sure if you mean incoming potable water, or outgoing waste water. If I recall correctly there is a company in Australia (Rowater) that makes portable desalination and purification plants. Offhand, I do not know how their product compares to those of other companies. A "solar still" might be a method of water purification to be considered in your case. SolAqua in Texas makes a product, but I think it can be done better. Nature has many elegant engineering solutions to common problems which have been replaced by machines that run on oil.

Lots of ideas, but no way to know if they are applicable to YOUR situation. Basically, I am thinking that a miniature indoor rain forest would offset the energy needs of your resort. I don't believe you need to burn bio-diesel to do it either. I have other ideas, but it comes down to if you got the money, I got the time; if you got the retainer, I got the proposal.

I can be reached through my profile.

my friend, prepare for an endless barrage of schemes peddled hense forth. You might actually make out better funding a project like that a local university. Give them a deadline, and everything, but that amount of money might get a lot of good pr for your resort.

Can I produce clean water, electricity and cooling at the same time from bio-diesel or solar?

Hot Topic