A Review on PV-RO Process: Solution to Drinking Water Scarcity due to High Salinity in Non-Electrified Rural Areas

Desalination of brackish groundwater has emerged as a major option to overcome water scarcity, since quantity and quality of surface water is not appropriate for the continuously growing water demand of two-thirds of the world's population. Photovoltaic (PV) solar energy powered reverse osmosis (RO) system can be the best option in secluded and isolated areas of the world that are suffering from a shortage of electricity energy and drinking water. This technique is likely to be the lowest energy demanding technology among other desalination techniques. Further, adopting measures like energy recovery devices, hybrid pretreatment process, and battery-less system reduces overall cost of the system. But, the capital cost of the system is still too high to support this technology competitively in the market. In the present paper, a review of the PV-RO systems employed for drinking water treatment in non-electrified rural areas of developing countries has been provided. The status of development in the last few years, along with the attempts towards finding rational solutions for cost reduction are also summarized.