KENYA: Nestled just east of Nairobi is Kitui, the capital city of Kitui County in Africa. The drought-stricken region faces regularly high temperatures — and the Kitui community, like many others, lacks clean drinking water and the infrastructure to support it. That is, until Finland-based Solar Water Solutions, a frontrunner in renewable-powered water desalination technology, brought their proprietary modular reverse osmosis system to them.
The desalination system in Kitui — a pilot project laying the foundation for 200 more to be installed across Kenya in 2023 — gives the community affordable, clean, and sustainable drinking and irrigation water based entirely on solar power.
Kitui is a rural, difficult-to-access location with weak municipal water and electrical supply infrastructure. That means it cannot support traditional water treatment systems nor on-site control and monitoring to overcome the town’s polluted brackish water. Plus, water temperature, salt, and other solvents fluctuate and affect a treatment system’s pressure — demanding constant adjustment for optimal performance.
Solar Water Solutions (SWS) identified the opportunity to leverage their 100% solar-powered SolarRO desalination solution in Kitui — and all across Kenya by taking action together with water infrastructure investor Climate Fund Managers. To achieve this goal, they needed the right technology backed by a collaborative partnership.
Danfoss, a long-time partner of Solar Water Solutions, co-developed a solution specifically for the Kitui project that integrated APP high-pressure pumps, VACON® 100 X VFD drives, and the DrivePro® Remote Monitoring solution —together with SWS’s ANVS® valve system — to be the driving force behind the SolarRO desalination system.
The containerized and decentralized SolarRO water purification units from Solar Water Solutions are designed to operate in remote locations with renewable energy — and entirely without energy storage or a stable grid. Based on reverse osmosis, the SolarRO system also features SWS’s patented Adaptive Nozzle Valve System (ANVS®) that maintains consistent pressure with the lowest energy consumption of all RO systems.
SWS has long used the versatile Danfoss APP high-pressure pumps that enable the SolarRO system to run at varying speeds with high accuracy. For Kitui, SWS and Danfoss took the solution to the next level, codeveloping a new electrical infrastructure using the VACON® 100 X drives with Solar Pump application as the driving force behind the system.
Plus, the system features a tailor-made Danfoss DrivePro® Remote Monitoring platform. The cloud-based technology allows SWS specialists to adjust system parameters while preventing and resolving issues quickly and accurately — so that the SolarRO units operate independently in villages like Kitui.
The SolarRO desalination system provides Kitui with a sustainable and reliable clean water supply, delivering 1,200 liters/hour of affordable drinking water. Plus, the newly adapted system featuring VACON® 100 X drives, Danfoss APP pumps, and DrivePro® Remote Monitoring, takes brackish water desalination technology and performance to a completely new level.
The versatility of the SolarRO system has opened new possibilities — and, together with Danfoss, Solar Water Solutions has started a research and development project focused on increasing the water production efficiency of the reverse osmosis process to a level 50% higher than the current state-of-the-art systems.
Based on the success in Kitui, Solar Water Solutions, together with its partners, plans to install an additional 200 desalination units in Kenya — which will ultimately provide drinking water for approximately 400,000 citizens in 2023.
Discover how the VACON® 100 X drives, Danfoss APP pumps, and DrivePro® Remote Monitoring system power Solar Water Solutions’ innovative technology.
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