> The reason why they may be using the wind turbine directly is if they're using mechanical energy to fire the compressors, etc to run the process.
The gearing would make this too complicated. A compressor wants a constant force, with a varying speed. But a turbine produces a varying force. (This can be adjusted somewhat by angling the blades, but not enough.) Older turbines run at a constant speed, the extra force allows more electricity to be generated. Newer ones are more complicated running at varying speeds. But in both cases the force varies, which would not work for a compressor.
You don't need to both compress the air, and refrigerate it - it's either/or.
If you compress the air, the cooling is just ambient cooling. A way to capture that energy is pretty important. It would be easy to capture the energy in the compression of the air, but once you cool it the pressure drops which is a waste. Maybe dump the heat after the expansion to increase the pressure of the air before using it?
The gearing of this system would be pretty complicated - you have energy from the turbine, then energy from the compressed air releasing. I guess a differential gear would work.
Refrigeration is a lot simpler in some ways (after condensing the water, use the cold to help cool the hot side) but designing a refrigeration pump to run at varying speed is really hard. And varying force is no good either.
You don't need reverse osmosis for the filtration - the water is quite clean, it just has some dust in it which a simple filter could handle. May be easier to filter the air instead.
> You don't need reverse osmosis for the filtration - the water is quite clean, it just has some dust in it which a simple filter could handle. May be easier to filter the air instead.
I was thinking the same when I read the article. I assumed they didn't intend to filter the air because an air filter may become clogged by sand particulate - especially in a sand storm. I said reverse osmosis for the filter, merely because this setup is actually well suited for it, and if these turn out to be mass produced (hopefully cheaper for more litres of water a day) that they may become used in more urban areas where pollution is a bigger factor. It would also make bacterial contamination less of a concern as mild chlorination of the holding tanks would likely make a long term potable water source with low maintenance.
However, the advantage of compressing over refrigerating is that the compressed air could be vented to periodically clean any air filters. It's important that these turbines be very low maintenance if they're to be installed in remote areas. A self-cleaning air filter and a simple water filter might be ideal.
The gearing would make this too complicated. A compressor wants a constant force, with a varying speed. But a turbine produces a varying force. (This can be adjusted somewhat by angling the blades, but not enough.) Older turbines run at a constant speed, the extra force allows more electricity to be generated. Newer ones are more complicated running at varying speeds. But in both cases the force varies, which would not work for a compressor.
You don't need to both compress the air, and refrigerate it - it's either/or.
If you compress the air, the cooling is just ambient cooling. A way to capture that energy is pretty important. It would be easy to capture the energy in the compression of the air, but once you cool it the pressure drops which is a waste. Maybe dump the heat after the expansion to increase the pressure of the air before using it?
The gearing of this system would be pretty complicated - you have energy from the turbine, then energy from the compressed air releasing. I guess a differential gear would work.
Refrigeration is a lot simpler in some ways (after condensing the water, use the cold to help cool the hot side) but designing a refrigeration pump to run at varying speed is really hard. And varying force is no good either.
You don't need reverse osmosis for the filtration - the water is quite clean, it just has some dust in it which a simple filter could handle. May be easier to filter the air instead.