Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Decentralized water systems'

Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Engineering, System Design and Management Program, Engineering and Management Program, 2016.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 185-191).
The degrading water quality in India combined with reduced groundwater supplies and insufficient municipal water distribution has led to the adoption of household water purifiers across the country. These water purifiers are used to treat water for potable consumption (drinking and cooking), and include a range of technologies capable of treating contaminants found in municipal water, groundwater, or other supplemental sources. The purifiers vary in cost, and have varying levels of accessibility to different socio-economic groups. As of 2010, market studies estimated that water purifiers, and more specifically reverse osmosis (RO) units, had not yet achieved a high level of diffusion across India, though sales were projected to greatly increase. More recent studies found levels of adoption for RO purifiers in certain urban areas growing above 50%, much higher than the 10% or less of households relying primarily on groundwater. Interviews conducted in January 2016 confirmed that households with a municipal supply were treating their water with RO purifiers, so RO adoption has spread beyond homes with only groundwater as a source. Though increased RO system diffusion may increase access to improved water quality, the purifiers require a reject line that discards 30 to 80% of the input water. The waste generated can be substantial, and for an average RO recovery of 20% treating 5.0 liters per capita per day drinking water, total up to 100 liters per household per day, 82.2 megaliters per day (MLD) within the city of Delhi, or even 2,340 MLD across all major urban areas of India if complete adoption occurs within the top two socio-economic groups. These volumes can amount to a measurable fraction of the volume of groundwater that a city extracts to supplement its surface water supply, and the volume of wastewater that goes untreated due to insufficient infrastructure. Policy and technology-based alternatives such as a water efficiency ranking program and the replacement of RO with electrodialysis, a more efficient desalination technology, align with government initiatives calling for higher efficiency and public participation, though a combined program is likely needed to make household water treatment sustainable in the long-term.
by Catherine L. O'Connor.
S.M. in Engineering and Management

With increasing global change pressures such as urbanization and climate change, cities of the future will experience difficulties in efficiently managing scarcer and less reliable water resources. However, projections of future global change pressures are plagued with uncertainties. This increases the difficulty in developing urban water systems that are adaptable to future uncertainty. A major component of an urban water system is the distribution system, which constitutes approximately 80-85% of the total cost of the water supply system (Swamee and Sharma, 2008). Traditionally, water distribution systems (WDS) are designed using deterministic assumptions of main model input variables such as water availability and water demand. However, these deterministic assumptions are no longer valid due to the inherent uncertainties associated with them. Hence, a new design approach is required, one that recognizes these inherent uncertainties and develops more adaptable and flexible systems capable of using their active capacity to act or respond to future alterations in a timely, performance-efficient, and cost-effective manner. This study develops a framework for the design of flexible WDS that are adaptable to new, different, or changing requirements. The framework consists of two main parts. The first part consists of several components that are important in the pre and post--processing of the least-cost design methodology of a flexible WDS. These components include: the description of uncertainties affecting WDS design, identification of potential flexibility options for WDS, generation of flexibility through optimization, and a method for assessing of flexibility. For assessment a suite of performance metrics is developed that reflect the degree of flexibility of a distribution system. These metrics focus on the capability of the WDS to respond and react to future changes. The uncertainties description focuses on the spatial and temporal variation of future demand. The second part consists of two optimization models for the design of centralized and decentralized WDS respectively. The first model generates flexible, staged development plans for the incremental growth of a centralized WDS. The second model supports the development of clustered/decentralized WDS. It is argued that these clustered systems promote flexibility as they provide internal degrees of freedom, allowing many different combinations of distribution systems to be considered. For both models a unique genetic algorithm based flexibility optimization (GAFO) model was developed that maximizes the flexibility of a WDS at the least cost. The efficacy of the developed framework and tools are demonstrated through two case study applications on real networks in Uganda. The first application looks at the design of a centralized WDS in Mbale, a small town in Eastern Uganda. Results from this application indicate that the flexibility framework is able to generate a more flexible design of the centralized system that is 4% - 50% less expensive than a conventionally designed system when compared against several future scenarios. In addition, this application highlights that the flexible design has a lower regret under different scenarios when compared to the conventionally designed system (a difference of 11.2m3/US$). The second application analyzes the design of a decentralized network in the town of Aura, a small town in Northern Uganda. A comparison of a decentralized system to a centralized system is performed, and the results indicate that the decentralized system is 24% - 34% less expensive and that these cost savings are associated with the ability of the decentralized system to be staged in a way that traces the urban growth trajectory more closely. The decentralized clustered WDS also has a lower regret (a difference of 17.7m3/US$) associated with the potential future conditions in comparison with the conventionally centralized system and hence is more flexible.

Climate change and increased pressure on water resources through urban and peri-urban population growth present some major uncertainties to the sustainable provision of good quality water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services, particularly to small-scale decentralized systems which are considered more vulnerable compared to centralized systems. The concept of “resilience” could be useful when dealing with such uncertainties. It deals with planning for shocks and stressors which could help address long-term water security and sanitation challenges. The aim of this research is to explore the relevance of the concept of resilience in dealing with uncertainties for decentralized WASH systems. Through literature review, interviews (n=22) and group discussions (n=18), the relevance of the 7 resilience principles, developed by SRC, to WASH planning for decentralized systems was explored. WHO community water and sanitation planning guidelines were reviewed to determine how resilience could add useful aspects to management of decentralised WASH systems.  Results showed that the resilience concept is important in planning and management of decentralized WASH systems, since, with the resilience principles as a basis, there is potential to involve different stakeholders to share knowledge, skills and resources across multiple scales. The three resilience principles considered most important from the 7 SRC resilience principles for decentralized WASH were identified as: 1) Broadening participation, 2) Maintenance of diversity and redundancy, and 3) Management of slow changing variables and feedbacks. Other important WASH aspects missing from the resilience principles were: 1) Contextuality, 2) Accountability, 3) Equity and human rights, 4) Monitoring and maintenance, 5) Resource capacity. Two case studies served as examples of how decentralized WASH systems are managed in a high-income country (Värmdö, Sweden) and  a low/middle income country (MSETO, Kenya). In both cases, applied resilience principles were identified together with areas of improvement. With reference to resilience, Värmdö municipality showed strength in the flow of information (connectivity) between actors but lacked integrated WASH planning guidelines and diversity of water supplies. The MSETO project exhibited strength in overlapping responsibilities (polycentric governance) but lacked management of slow changing variables and feedbacks, linked to the lack of adequate re-sources. The analysis of WHO Water Safety Plans and sanitation safety planning guidelines through the resilience framework revealed that the WHO guidelines have a heavy focus on technical aspects and lack an integrated approach involving polycentric governance and complex adaptive system thinking. There is need for the revision of the guide-lines to incorporate community social aspects, strategies of improving water availability and consideration of complex adaptive systems thinking. Municipalities and practitioners are recommended to consider resilience principles as well as the identified missing aspects in WASH planning and interventions. Further research is needed investigating necessary conditions for the application of resilience principles and important trade-offs.

Sustainable Built Environments Senior Capstone Project
Across the world, populations continue to grow while water supplies stay fixed. In the American Southwest, water supplies are at an all time low, yet warm, favorable conditions continue to lure residents to the area. With some of the country’s lowest fresh water reserves, it is imperative that changes are made to water usage trends and associated energy inefficiencies. An analysis of water usage in Tucson was conducted to evaluate potential solutions for reducing consumption and to correspondingly shrink energy usage. Case studies were investigated, census numbers were used to roughly calculate statistics, existing knowledge on water conservation techniques were researched, and alternative water filtration as well as distribution systems were scrutinized for their viability amongst current infrastructure. The potential to reduce water usage is greatest with the largest user of water in Tucson, the single-family residence. On average the single-family residence is capable of effectively saving nearly 25,000 gallons of water per year with efficient fixtures, another 25,000 gallons per year by reducing outdoor water use by half, and another 10,625 gallons by utilizing rainwater harvesting. Combine those savings and multiply them by the 225,000-240,000 single-family residents estimated to be in Tucson and the savings reach more than five billion gallons a year, effectively almost cutting water consumption in Tucson by a fifth. Further, to keep remaining usage impacts negligible, implementation of an indirect or direct potable water reuse system could satisfy populations for decades by reusing water that would normally be discarded as effluent. Water consumption must be curved so that it can satisfy a growing population’s needs. Amongst residents of Tucson, single-family residences have the greatest potential to reduce water and associated energy needs. Through conservation techniques, water harvesting, reducing outdoor water usage, and potable reuse, limited water supplies can satisfy future generations to come.

Diversos estudos têm relacionado melhores condições de saneamento básico ao incremento nos índices de saúde da população. Investimentos em saneamento básico tendem a promover um benefício econômico, já que o custo para as intervenções necessárias é inferior à despesa com tratamento das enfermidades causadas pela falta de saneamento. Esta pesquisa visou caracterizar a problemática do abastecimento de água em pequenas comunidades urbanas e rurais no estado do Rio Grande do Sul, avaliando-se a vulnerabilidade dos sistemas de abastecimento e da população atingida por meio de critérios próprios voltados à situação de interesse. Definiu-se uma amostra com locais escolhidos por método estatístico e um índice de vulnerabilidade composto por quatro dimensões de análise, dez indicadores e cinco níveis de vulnerabilidade cada. Com isso, caracterizou-se a problemática com base nos dez indicadores propostos, analisaram-se estatisticamente os resultados do índice de vulnerabilidade com o cálculo do índice médio para o Estado e em termos de subpopulações, e estimou-se a proporção da população abastecida e sistemas considerados vulneráveis. Apresentaram-se, portanto, conclusões quanto ao método empregado e resultados encontrados, além de recomendações que podem ser aplicadas para mitigar as vulnerabilidades encontradas e no desenvolvimento de trabalhos futuros. Os resultados demonstraram que o nível de tratamento se mostrou um importante critério de análise de vulnerabilidade, havendo diferenças significativas nos resultados do índice para os sistemas sem tratamento e aqueles com tratamento considerado adequado.
According to several studies, there is an association between progresses in drinking water and sanitation to improvements in health indices. Investments in safe drinking water and sanitation may yield in an economic benefit, as the health-effect costs outweigh the costs of undertaking the required interventions. The objective of this research was to evaluate small community water supply systems in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, assessing the vulnerability of the systems and population that depends on them. The survey followed statistical sampling techniques to design the sample size and a water vulnerability index tool that included four dimensions, ten indicators and five vulnerability ratings was constructed. The condition was characterized by the ten proposed indicators, while statistical analysis of the vulnerability index was performed with mean estimates for the State and subpopulations. It was also estimated the proportion of the target population and water supply systems considered vulnerable. Conclusions were presented with respect to the method applied and the main results found in the survey. Recommendations were proposed in order to mitigate the vulnerabilities of the systems and protect public health. The results demonstrate that the level of treatment is a major vulnerability criteria, as significant differences in the index were related to systems that distribute water without treatment and those with an appropriate treatment technology.

A precariedade do tratamento dos esgotos sanitários no país, principalmente em pequenos municípios, aliado à falta de recursos financeiros, necessitam apoio tecnológico e científico, sendo motivo de preocupação e atenção. O objetivo geral deste trabalho é propor alternativas de sistemas de tratamento de esgotos sanitários urbanos para a cidade de Feliz/RS, município brasileiro de pequeno porte, visando à melhoria da qualidade dos seus recursos hídricos. Para a realização deste trabalho foi necessário realizar o diagnóstico do sistema de tratamento de esgotos sanitários na área urbana do município; avaliar o impacto gerado pelos esgotos sanitários urbanos no manancial hídrico do município e propor sistemas de tratamento de esgotos sanitários mais sustentáveis e que atendam os padrões de emissões de efluentes líquidos, permitidos pela legislação, em águas superficiais. A estratégia de pesquisa adotada neste trabalho foi a pesquisa construtiva, cuja metodologia foi dividida em três etapas: I) delimitação da área geográfica e análise documental; II) levantamento quantitativo de domicílios, por bairro, e coleta de amostras de água, em três pontos do manancial que banha o município de Feliz; III) apresentação de propostas de sistemas de tratamento de esgotos sanitários. Nas etapas II e III houve a aplicação do modelo matemático, QUAL2K, no trecho do rio estudado, no município de Feliz, simulando as diversas condições da qualidade da água e comparando-as com os padrões de emissões de efluentes permitidos pela legislação, em águas superficiais. Os resultados mostraram que a região urbana do município de Feliz apresenta inexpressivos índices de tratamento de esgotos domésticos. Os esgotos lançados sem tratamento, provenientes das redes pluviais, são os principais poluentes do rio, na área urbana. Foram pesquisados sistemas descentralizados de tratamento de esgotos propostos, entre os quais: wetlands, UASB e filtro anaeróbio, e tanque séptico e infiltração. A simulação mostra que estes sistemas propostos poderão se tornar efetivos, no sentido de tratar os esgotos domésticos urbanos de forma mais sustentável e na redução dos níveis dos parâmetros analisados, embora não atinjam os limites estabelecidos pela legislação, para que o trecho estudado possa ser enquadrado como atendendo à legislação e aos anseios da população local.
The lack of adequate sewage treatment in the country, especially in small municipalities, together with the scarceness of financial resources, requires technological and scientific support, being a major concern and asks for the due attention. The general objective of this work is to propose alternative systems of urban sewage treatment for the municipality of Feliz, a small Brazilian municipality in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, , , aiming at improving the quality of its water resources. The elaboration of this work included a system diagnosis of sewage treatment in the urban area, the assessment of the impact of sewage generated by urban water sources and a proposal for the treatment of sewage systems in a more sustainable way, that meets the emissions standards for effluents , as allowed by legislation, in surface waters. The research strategy adopted in this work was the constructive research, whose methodology was applied in three steps: I) a geographical area delimitation and documental analysis II) a quantitative survey of households, by area, and collection of water samples at three points in the river that crosses the town of Feliz, III) a presentation of proposals for more sustainable sewage systems treatment. In stages II and III a mathematical model, QUAL2K, was applied in the studied stretch of the river, simulating the various conditions of water quality and comparing them with the effluent emissions standards allowed by law, in surface waters. The results showed that the urban area of Feliz presents a very low rate of domestic sewage treatment. The untreated sewage released into the local system of stormwater is the main pollutant of the river in the urban area. The following decentralized systems of sewage treatment were studied: wetlands, anaerobic filter and UASB and septic tank and seepage. The simulation showed that these proposed systems can be effective in order to treat more sustainably the domestic sewage and to reduce the levels of the analyzed parameters, although not reaching the limits established by the legislation for the studied stretch so to enabled it to be framed as being in compliance with the Brazilian legislation and with the wishes of the local community.

This thesis aims to develop control algorithms for irrigation canals in an experimental framework.
These water transport systems are difficult to manage and present low efficiencies in practice.
As a result, an important percentage of water is lost, maintenance costs increase and water users follow a rigid irrigation schedule.
All these problems can be reduced by automating the operation of irrigation canals.
In order to fulfil the objectives, a laboratory canal, called Canal PAC-UPC, was equipped and instrumented in parallel with the development of this thesis. In general, the methods and solutions proposed herein were extensively tested in this canal.
In a broader context, three main contributions in different irrigation canal control areas are presented.
Focusing on gate-discharge measurements, many submerged-discharge calculation methods are tested and compared using Canal PAC-UPC measurement data. It has been found that most of them present errors around ±10%, but there are notable exceptions. Specifically, using classical formulas with a constant 0.611 contraction value give very good results (error<±6%), but when data is available, a very simple calibration formula recently proposed in the literature significantly outperform the rest (error<±3%). As a consequence, the latter is encouragingly proposed as the basis of any gate discharge controller.
With respect to irrigation canal modeling, a detailed procedure to obtain data-driven linear irrigation canal models is successfully developed. These models do not use physical parameters of the system, but are constructed from measurement data. In this case, these models are thought to be used in irrigation canal control issues like controller tuning, internal controller model in predictive controllers or simply as fast and simple simulation platforms. Much effort is employed in obtaining an adequate model structure from the linearized Saint-Venant equations, yielding to a mathematical procedure that verifies the existence of an integrator pole in any type of canal working under any hydraulic condition. Time-domain and frequency-domain results demonstrate the accuracy of the resulting models approximating a canal working around a particular operation condition both in simulation and experiment.
Regarding to irrigation canal control, two research lines are exploited. First, a new water level control scheme is proposed as an alternative between decentralized and centralized control. It is called Semi-decentralized scheme and aims to resemble the centralized control performance while maintaining an almost decentralized structure. Second, different water level control schemes based on PI control and Predictive control are studied and compared. The simulation and laboratory results show that the response and performance of this new strategy against offtake discharge changes, are almost identical to the ones of the centralized control, outperforming the other tested schemes based on PI control and on Predictive control. In addition, it is verified that schemes based on Predictive control with good controller models can counteract offtake discharge variations with less level deviations and in almost half the time than PI-based schemes.
In addition to these three main contributions, many other smaller developments, minor results and practical recommendations for irrigation canal automation are presented throughout this thesis.

Cape Town is experiencing its worst drought in recorded history. Notwithstanding that the Western Cape has always been a water scarce region, it is this current drought that has brought home the area’s inherent vulnerability and highlighted the governance issues. The world wherein South Africa’s water governance was created is very different to the world we find ourselves in today. It is a world of uncertainty and unpredictability not contemplated in water governance comprised of legislation, policy, guidelines and practice. The current water governance constructs a conventional approach based upon predictability and certainty and is no longer appropriate to meet today’s new challenges. Consistent with this conventional approach, Cape Town’s municipal water supply is almost completely dependent upon surface water which makes it even more vulnerable to drought than if its supply was comprised of a variety of water supply options. With surface water sources fully exploited and storage opportunities within the urban edge limited alternative water supply options must be more seriously considered and the water governance reformed to accommodate its use. Water governance is the focus of reform because it is the framework for infrastructure planning and therefore controls the resultant system, infrastructure and management. This thesis interrogates the current water governance as the starting point before firstly discussing the proposed incremental approach towards a decentralised, hybrid system for water infrastructure and secondly, identifying specific areas where intervention is necessary for implementation.

Increasing population, diminishing supplies and variable climatic conditions can cause difficulties in meeting water demands. When this long range water supply plan is developed to cope with future water demand changes, accuracy and reliability are the two most important factors. To develop an accurate model, the water supply system has become more complicated and comprehensive structures. Future uncertainty also has been considered to improve system reliability as well as economic feasibility.In this study, a general large-scale water supply system that is comprised of modular components was developed in a dynamic simulation environment. Several possible scenarios were simulated in a realistic hypothetical system. In addition to water balances and quality analyses, construction and operation of system components costs were estimated for each scenario. One set of results demonstrates that construction of small-cluster decentralized wastewater treatment systems could be more economical than a centralized plant when communities are spatially scattered or located in steep areas.The Shuffled Frog Leaping Algorithm (SFLA), then, is used to minimize the total system cost of the general water supply system. Decisions are comprised of sizing decisions - pipe diameter, pump design capacity and head, canal capacity, and water/wastewater treatment capabilities - and flow allocations over the water supply network. An explicit representation of energy consumption cost for the operation is incorporated into the system in the optimization process of overall system cost. Although the study water supply systems included highly nonlinear terms in the objective function and constraints, a stochastic search algorithm was applied successfully to find optimal solutions that satisfied all the constraints for the study networks.Finally, a robust optimization approach was introduced into the design process of a water supply system as a framework to consider uncertainties of the correlated future data. The approach allows for the control of the degree of conservatism which is a crucial factor for the system reliabilities and economical feasibilities. The system stability is guaranteed under the most uncertain condition and it was found that the water supply system with uncertainty can be a useful tool to assist decision makers to develop future water supply schemes.

Water demand has increased exponentially since 2007 in western North Dakota. This increase can largely be traced to the advancement of technology in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) which has led to one of the largest oil booms in the country. Along with the recent oil boom, water depots have expanded and played a significant role in providing water for fracking. Using decentralized agent-based modeling (ABM) to model water allocation among water depots, a scenario analysis obtains results for four scenarios. Policy suggestions, based on the scenario analysis, include allowing greater access to LSMR water sources and restricting SW and GW use for the oil industry to reduce water scarcity in the Bakken. These results support allowing greater access to LSMR water sources for the oil industry as desired by the North Dakota State Water Commission (SWC), and other elected officials in the past decade.

Os sistemas prediais de água não potável podem ser do tipo centralizado, quando os efluentes oriundos de diversas edificações são coletados e transportados para um único local de tratamento e redistribuídos para um conjunto de residências; ou descentralizado, quando a coleta, o tratamento e o transporte dos efluentes ocorrem próximos ao local de produção. Porém, tanto o sistema centralizado quanto o descentralizado possui particularidades que os fazem interessantes ou não em aspectos sociais, econômicos e ambientais. Desta forma, o objetivo principal desta pesquisa foi formular modelos matemáticos que permitissem comparar o sistema centralizado com o descentralizado. Para o desenvolvimento do estudo realizou-se uma revisão bibliográfica com o intuito de coletar informações sobre as principais variáveis que interferem na tomada de decisão de cada tipo de sistema. A partir dos princípios da Programação Linear Inteira foram formulados três modelos que permitiram encontrar qual tipo de sistema apresenta o menor custo total acumulado, quanto é o valor desse custo ao longo do tempo e quantos sistemas são necessários instalar para atender a uma demanda específica. Com base nos dados da literatura consultada, o sistema centralizado apresentou-se mais vantajoso do que os sistemas descentralizados quanto aos custos de implantação, de manutenção e de operação considerando uma vida útil de 20 anos. Todavia, verificou-se que a escolha do sistema mais viável não deve se concentrar apenas nos custos, mas também devem ser consideradas variáveis qualitativas. Deste modo, as formulações gerais dos modelos permitem a inserção de outras variáveis de decisão e restrições para aprimorar a tomada de decisão quanto ao tipo de sistema predial de água não potável a ser implantado.
Non-potable water systems may be of the centralized type when effluents from several buildings are collected and transported to a single treatment site and redistributed to a set of residences; or decentralized, when the collection, treatment and transportation of the effluent occurs near the place of production. However, both the centralized and decentralized systems have particularities that make them interesting or not in social, economic and environmental aspects. In this way, the main objective of this research was to formulate mathematical models that allowed to compare the centralized system with the decentralized one. For the development of the study a bibliographic review was carried out in order to collect information on the main variables that interfere in the decision making of each type of system. From the principles of Linear Programming, three models were formulated that allowed to find out which type of system has the lowest cumulative total cost, what is the value of this cost over time and how many systems are needed to meet a specific demand. Based on the data of the literature, the centralized system was more advantageous than the decentralized systems in terms of the implantation, maintenance and operation costs considering a useful life of 20 years. However, it has been found that the choice of the most viable system should not only focus on costs but should also be considered as qualitative variables. In this way, the general models formulations allow the insertion of other decision variables and constraints to improve the decision making regarding the type of non-potable water system to be implanted.

Water scarcity has caused severe impact on the entire ecosphere while the climate change is resulting in high frequency of extreme weather conditions, especially extended period of drought. Due to the even increasing world’s population and the continued societal modernization, water scarcity is now one of the leading global challenges towards the development of human society. On the other hand, atmospheric water, accounting for 6 times the water in all rivers on Earth, is emerging as an alternative water resource. This dissertation thoroughly investigated the fully solar energy driven atmospheric water harvesting (AWH) process in a broad scientific and application context. The light-to-heat conversion process of solar photothermal materials was investigated first with a rationally designed droplet-laser system, which in combination with the calculation of heat of absorption of water vapor for various application scenarios, formed a theoretical basis of this dissertation research. As a result, a series of commonly used hydrated salts and their anhydrous counterparts were judiciously selected and successfully proven to be low-cost AWH materials to generate clean fresh water for arid regions. A hydrogel-deliquescent salt composite was further developed as AWH material with a significantly enhanced fresh water production capacity. A new design of nano-capsule encapsulated deliquescent salt was further put forward to enhance water vapor sorption/desorption kinetics, which enabled, for the first time, multiple sorption/desorption cycles within one day and thus multiplied water production capacity. The first-ever continuous AWH device, as opposed to batch-type one, was rationally designed, fabricated, and successfully tested in field conditions outdoors. At last, the dissertation pioneered a novel concept of atmospheric water sorption and desorption cycle for photovoltaic (PV) panel cooling. This dissertation shines significant light on sorption based atmospheric water harvesting and inspires more research efforts on this important research topic.

Shortage of drinking water in most parts of the world has been a growing concern in recent times. The situation has been getting worse in underdeveloped and developing countries due to sudden explosion in population growth and the growth in the industries. The natural resources for potable water are limited and unless a feasible solution is obtained in the near future, the ‘concern situation’ may turn into a ‘panic situation’. A possible solution for the shortage in drinking water is to use water from inexhaustible sources such as oceans and seas and make it potable using desalination process. However, the process of desalination is an energy intensive process which the poor countries can not afford. In recent times, the cost of fossil fuels has been skyrocketing. With the crude oil costing more than Rs.5200 (US$120) a barrel as on September 2008, even the rich countries like USA and the countries in the European Union are feeling the pinch of the energy cost. Alternate energy sources such as solar, wind, geo-thermal, hydrogen etc., have become the order of the day. These sources are renewable and are environmental friendly. More than one third of the populations of the world live in coastal areas. These areas get abundant amount of solar energy throughout the year. Utilization of this energy in desalination process would solve drinking water problem to a very great extent. However, construction of centralized desalination plants requires large amount of capital which the poor countries can ill-afford. An alternate solution would be to construct decentralized smaller plants that would require smaller capital to construct and easier to maintain. If the energy requirement is tapped from renewable sources such as solar, then the operational cost also becomes affordable for the poor countries. By taking care of the water requirement of the coastal areas through this process, one may save large amounts of money in transporting potable water from interior areas to the coastal areas. There would be enough water for the people living in the interior areas. The water bed level in the interior areas would gradually increase, thereby reducing the drinking water concerns significantly. In this thesis, a small scale stand alone power generation system for the desalination process is proposed that is suitable to provide clean potable water from sources such as sea water or brackish water. Solar energy is proposed as a source of energy for the proposed desalination system. This source is available in plenty in arid and semi-arid areas. It is free and is also friendlier to the environment. It is proposed to use solar energy in thermal form to obtain energy equivalent of ‘latent heat of vaporization’ for the vaporization process and in electrical form for operating the dc machines and electronic control units that are integral parts of the desalination system. The proposed desalination unit can be built as small as possible even to feed a single household’s requirement and hence can be conceptualized as decentralized units. These units would require considerably less capital to build, and would require minimum maintenance. The desalination process is based on flash evaporation wherein a heated liquid is subjected to a pressure reduction by passing through a throttling device resulting in an initially superheated state. In the proposed desalination process, the traditional flash evaporator is extended to include continuous dynamic pressure modulation to obtain an optimal flow rate for a specified energy input. The cost function or the performance index for optimization is defined as the ratio of flow rate to the energy spent. The optimal flow rate occurs at a specific chamber pressure for a given inlet water temperature. By operating at optimal pressure, significant energy is saved for a specific flow rate. This principle is validated experimentally and the results are presented and discussed in the thesis. This proposed scheme along with hybrid energy input will prove to be an attractive solution for community drinking water problem. A system needs to have a mathematical representation in order to predict the dynamic behavior of the system. This thesis proposes the bond graph method of modeling the physical system wherein the energy flow across the electrical, thermal and the hydraulic domains are included. A system may comprise of several subsystems and the energy flow in each subsystem may be in a different domain. A desalination system is such a system wherein the energy flow in subsystems is in different domains such as electrical, thermal and hydraulics. The bond graph approach is best suited for modeling of such systems where the power/energy flow across domains can be easily and seamlessly integrated. The thesis proposes a fifth order dynamic model of a single stage flash evaporation with pressure modulation using the bond graph approach. The proposed model incorporates the effects of chamber pressure variation, the entropy flow from the chamber due to conduction, convection, radiation and also the thermal dynamics of the water bodies in the evaporation, condensation and collection chambers. The proposed model is simulated in MATLAB/Simulink environment. The simulation results are compared with the experimental results to validate the model. This proposed model can be used for both analysis and synthesis of a desalination system. The desalination system is a complex system wherein multiple energy domains are involved. The thesis presents a systematic process for the design of the desalination system. Design of the desalination system involves design of multi domain subsystems. The design becomes much more complex if the energy source to run the system is solar/ hybrid solar based. The energy budget has to be carefully evaluated considering the worst case conditions for the availability of solar energy. Hence, the information on the quantum of solar energy available at any location is a critical parameter needed for design of the desalination system. A generic method of developing a solar insolation model for a specific region such as the Indian sub-continent is proposed in this thesis along with the validation of the model by comparing measured value with the values that are obtained from the model. As the insolation model is dependent on the water vapor content in the vertical column at the location, the methodology is further applied to develop a model for estimating the precipitated water vapor content in a vertical column for any location. The model is validated by comparing the computed values to the measured values. The thesis further presents the design and selection of the balance of the system. The selection of the balance of the system includes sizing of solar thermal plate collectors such as flat plate for pre-heating and paraboloid for vaporization, solar PV panels for operating pumps, actuator and control units, and battery for backup source for night loads and during ‘no-sun days’, criteria of selecting centrifugal pump for circulating condensation water, vacuum pump for dynamic pressure modulation and selecting linear actuator for Sun tracking of the paraboloid concentrator. A discussion on the electronic circuits used in the control scheme is presented in this thesis. This includes the circuit for maximum power point tracking, circuit for DC-DC conversion, circuit for pressure modulation, circuit for speed control of linear actuator, and finally the circuit for water level limiter. A discussion on the life cycle costing is also presented in this thesis. This is an important parameter that refers to the accumulated worth of all the costs related to building and operating the desalination plant during its life span. It is emphasized that the objective of the design process is to minimize the life cycle cost while meeting other performance requirements. Thus, life cycle costing is an essential part of the design cycle. The design methodology and the approach used to design the desalination system are implemented in the form of a toolbox in the MATLAB environment. The various functions of the toolbox are highlighted by a detailed step by step presentation of the design modules in the thesis. The modules form the components of the design toolbox for designing the proposed desalination system.