Bond Graph Modeling of an Off Grid Brackish Water Pumping/Desalination Unit Fed by Renewable Energy for Freshwater Production and Agricultural Irrigation

Abstract

This paper, is dedicated to a Brackish Water Reverse Osmosis (BWRO) pumping/desalination unit systemic modeling. The studied system is likely to operate in remote off-grid communities lacking access to freshwater. Without battery storage, the unit is powered by hybrid PV/Wind-turbine generator to provide freshwater for domestic and agricultural uses. The investigated system includes three concurrent processes: pumping, desalination and irrigation putting ahead different disciplinary notably hydraulic, electric, mechanical and thermal domains. Therefore, based on bond graph technique, a multidisciplinary approach is adopted for such a multi-physical system modeling. The established model is assessed using BWRO test bench through an experimental characterization of the studied processes. The experimental results demonstrated the significant accuracy of the bond graph models obtained from simulation drawn with a dedicated software tool.