Integrated Pumped Hydro Reverse Osmosis Systems

During my PhD at MIT, I also worked on a project in which the co-location of reverse osmosis desalination plants and pumped hydro energy storage/generation systems was investigated. Given that the ideal head height for both of these systems are approximately 500-700 m, it was thought that the co-location of these systems could reduce capital investments such as pump costs while also solving brine disposal issues for desalination. The overall system was called an Integrated Pumped Hydro Reverse Osmosis system (IPHROS).

As part of this project, I developed an I-Index for various locations around the world, an index which weighted the distance the height of mountains near the coast of suitable heights and their distance from the ocean. I examined the I-Index for 28 locations around the globe.

I-Index Plot
I-Index and energy potential of 28 locations around the globe.


For more information, please see the IPHROS publication:

A. H. Slocum, M. N. Haji, M. Ferrera, and S. J. Ghaemsaidi, “Integrated Pumped Hydro Reverse Osmosis Systems,” Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments, 18, 80-99, 2016.

IPHROS schematic
IPHROS schematic.

IPHROS Case Study
IPHROS Case Study for southern California. Red indicates better potential for IPHROS systems. Regions focused on for further analysis are highlighted in white boxes.




Template by Bootstrapious.com & ported to Hugo by Kishan B