SOLAR REVERSE OSMOSIS WATER TREATMENT SYSTEM
FIELD OF INVENTION
The present invention generally relates to water treatment system, and making the water suitable . for drinking, particularly to Reverse Osmosis (RO) water treatment system operating on solar power. More particularly, the present invention relates to cost effective and eco-friendly solar operated RO water treatment system, which is highly efficient in providing potable drinking water with low power consumption and is suitable for installation in any part of the country including far flung villages. Hence provides for the most important need of potable water to rural population.
BACKGROUND ART
Water treatment is, collectively, the industrial-scale processes, that make water acceptable for an end-use, which may be drinking, industry, or medicine. Water purification or water treatment is . the removal of contaminants from raw water to produce drinking water that is pure enough for an end use. Technologies for potable water treatment are well developed, and generalized designs are available that are used by many water utilities. Water treatment varies as to the source and kinds of water.
Drinking water, more particularly, hygienic drinking water scarcity is a major problem in today's world particularly in rural areas even though we have abundance of water in the form of lakes,

rivers wells, ocean etc. While the normal water can be converted into potable/drinking water using filtration techniques, the water from such filtration may not be hygienic and may not be fit for drinking. Hard water requires more strenuous methods for making it soft and potable. Reverse Osmosis (RO) removes dissolved impurities, metals, minerals, microbial, and colloidal and dissolved silica.
Existing RO water treatment plants operate using electrical power use high-pressure pumps making it a very high power consuming technology. In the existing RO plants, the pressure drop across the RO diaphragm is high leading to the requirement of high-pressure pumps to pump water with high power consumption. The requirement of power source varies based on the nature of water treated in the plant.
Power source is another major problem in rural areas, some times DG sets are used for running such filtration plants, making it extremely expensive and cumbersome, making the availability of drinking water difficult. People in rural areas are in dire need to have water treatment plant to provide potable drinking water, which consumes less power, doesn't depend on the EB's electricity or DG sets. As per the norms, human beings require approximately 50 liters tolOO liters of potable water per day for all their needs.

US7775374 discloses a water purification unit to purify potentially contaminated water. Th< water purification unit is in fluid communication with a water source and has a pump to drav water from the water source. The water is passed through at least a main filter to purify the water and dispensed through an outlet. Power is provided to the water purification unit by a batten bank and a non-grid power source.
US20110084023 discloses a portable water purifier having a shell, a solar cell, a power storag< system, a micro booster pump, and a membrane module. The solar cell is disposed on the shell The power storage system, the micro booster pump, and the membrane module are disposec jntegratedly in the shell. The solar cell is connected to the power storage system and th< combination thereof provides power for the micro booster pump. The micro booster pump i: connected to the membrane module.
CN105314779 discloses a photovoltaic and water purification treatment, particularly to an RC membrane depth water purifier driven by an independent photovoltaic system.
CN203079726 provides a system for transforming solar, energy to reverse osmosis fresh water The system mainly comprises a solar photovoltaic power generation system and a revers* osmosis system.

695/CHE/2014 discloses a portable solar water purifier. The portable solar water purifier comprising housing equipped with one or more solar panels mounted on top and extending outwards from multiple sides of the housing for collecting solar energy.
However, in the prior arts energy storage is through battery back-up or no storage at all.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a cost effective and eco-friendly water treatment system, which operates completely independent of electrical power in providing potable drinking water at locations far flung from urban areas. Further, there needs an efficient system, which can consume less power to treat water of any kind.
OBJECTS OF INVENTION
One or more problems present of the prior art may be overcome by various embodiments of the present invention.
Accordingly it is the primary object of the present invention to provide solar powered Reverse Osmosis (RO) water treatment system.
Another object of the present invention is to provide cost effective and eco-friendly solar operated system, which is highly efficient in providing potable drinking water with low power consumption than the conventional system.

It is another object of the present invention, wherein the solar powered RO water treatment system is scalable in providing potable drinking water to a larger community.
It is another objective of the present invention, wherein the solar powered RO water treatment system operates either in series or in parallel with grid, said grid acts as energy storage.
SUMMARY OF INVENTION
Thus according to the basic aspect of the present invention there is provided a solar powered Reverse Osmosis (RO) water treatment system comprising:
photovoltaic modules;
controller;
electric panel;
one or more dosing systems;
cyclone separator;
one or more filters; and
RO membrane system,
wherein electric energy generated by the photovoltaic modules is fed to AC motor
drives of the filters and RO system through the controller and electric panel,
wherein the cyclone separator separates suspended particles from the raw water fed and
stores in raw water tank as buffer storage,

wherein the raw water is pumped through the filters using ultra filtration (UF) feed
pumps and the filtered water is buffered in filtered water tank,
wherein the buffered water is pumped through RO feed pump and high pressure pump
to the RO membrane system to obtain treated RO product water, and
wherein the controller is further coupled to grid, said grid acts as energy storage
system.
It is another aspect of the present invention, wherein the system operates either in series with the grid wherein the power generated by the photovoltaic modules is drawn through the grid or in parallel with grid wherein the differential of power generated by the photovoltaic modules and the RO system is either pumped to or drawn from the grid.
It is another aspect of,the present invention, wherein the filters include dual media filter, bag
filter; ultra filter system and micron filter.
It is another aspect of the present invention, wherein the raw water is dosed with chlorine and
caustic for dis-infectioning and pH control using the chlorine dosing system and caustic dosing
system.
It is another aspect of the present invention, wherein the. system further includes an anti-sealant system which is dosed to protect the RO membrane system from scaling.

It is another aspect of the present invention, wherein pH of the treated RO product water is corrected using a pH booster.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING:
Figure 1: illustrates solar powered RO water treatment according to the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWING
The present invention as herein described relates to effective and efficient way of desalination of salt water using solar powered filtration and Reverse Osmosis (RO) system to produce potable quality water.
Referring to Figure I, the system for pumping water comprises of photovoltaic modules [1]; controller [3]; electric panel [7]; one or more dosing systems [8 and 15]; cyclone separator [9]; one or more filters; and RO membrane system [21]. The photovoltaic modules (1) make use of photovoltaic cells to generate the DC Power. The system works on solar power source and the power consumption is optimized and said system is adapted to operating conditions of solar power. The DC Power is fed to the controller [3] through DC cable [2] or the like and converted to AC power, said AC power is fed to the electric panel [7] through AC cable [6] or the like. The controller [3] is a power controller [3] which includes but not limited to DC-DC converter,

inverter, or Variable Frequency Drive [VFD]. The VFD is pure sine wave and has very low harmonics. The VFD is insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) based and is maximum power point tracking (MPPT) controlled for generation of power at appropriate voltage for high efficiency conversion.
The excess power generated or shortfall in power requirement is fed to or drawn from grid [5] through net meter [4]. The controller [3] is coupled to the grid [5], said grid [5] acts as energy storage system to store the excess or unutilized power during solar hours and make use of the same during non-solar or cloudy hours. The photovoltaic system operates either in series with the grid [5] where in the solar PV power is drawn through the grid [5] or in parallel with the grid [5] wherein the differential of solar power generated and the RO system is either pumped to or drawn from the grid [5]. The power from the electric panel [7]'is fed to AC motor drives of the filtration and RO system.
The raw water to the filtration and RO system will be turbid with suspended and dissolved solids. The raw water is fed to the cyclone separator [9], where the suspended particles get separated and the water is stored in raw water tank [10] as buffer storage. The raw water is further pumped through one or more filters using ultra filtration (UF) feed pumps [11], said filters include dual media filter [12], bag filter [13]; ultra filter system [14] and micron filter [19]. The filter is RO diaphragm and has low pressure drop across the diaphragm which leads to the requirement of low pressure pump to pump water with low power consumption. During this

cycle, chlorine and caustic is dosed to the raw water for dis- infectioning and pH control using the chlorine dosing system [8] and caustic dosing system [15]. The filtered water is buffered in filtered water tank [16]. The buffered water is pumped through RO feed pump [17] and high pressure pump [20] to the RO membrane system [21] and the resultant product water from the RO membrane system [21] is the clear product water of potable water quality.
During the RO cycle, an anti-sealant system [18] is dosed to protect the RO membrane system [21] from scaling. Further, the pH is corrected using a pH booster [22] to ensure the required acidity in the product water. Further, the system is provided with micro controlled monitoring module.
The UF system and the dual filter media filter are periodically backwashed using the filter water from the filtered water tank [16] using RO feed pump [17]. The RO reject water from the RO membrane system [21] and the filter backwash water is led to the public sewage drainage system. The treated RO product water is stored in the product water tank [23] for consumption. The quality of the product water meets the requirements of WHO norms or IS-10500 as per the need of the consumer.
The requirement of solar power depends on the nature of water treated. For example, the solar system needed would be between 5kWp - 20 kWp depending on the nature of water used. The controller [3] and micro controlled monitoring module provides constant pressure and hence

enhanced performance and higher quantity of drinking and potable water at low power and low cost making the system of the present invention more power efficient.
WE CLAIM:
1. A solar powered Reverse Osmosis (RO) water treatment system comprising:
photovoltaic modules [1];
controller [3];
electric panel [7];
one or more dosing systems [8 and 15];
cyclone separator [9];
one or more filters; and
* RO membrane system [21],
wherein electric energy generated by the photovoltaic modules [1] is fed to AC motor
drives of the filters and RO system through the controller [3] and electric panel [7],
wherein the cyclone separator [9] separates suspended particles from the raw water
fed and stores in raw water tank [ 10] as buffer storage,'
wherein the raw water is pumped through the filters using ultra filtration (UF) feed
pumps [11] and the filtered water is buffered in filtered water tank [16],
wherein the buffered water .is pumped through RO feed pump [17] and high pressure
pump [20] to the RO membrane system [21] to obtain treated RO product water, and
wherein the controller [3] is further coupled to grid [5], said grid [5] acts as energy
storage system.
2. The system as claimed in claim 1 operates either in series with the grid [5] wherein the power
generated by the photovoltaic modules [1] is drawn through the grid [5] or in parallel with grid.

[5] wherein the differential of power generated by the photovoltaic modules [1] and the RO system is either pumped to or drawn from the grid [5].
3. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the filters include dual media filter [12], bag filter [13]; ultra filter system [14] and micron filter [19].
4. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the raw water is dosed with chlorine and caustic for dis-infectioning and pH control using the chlorine dosing system [8] and caustic dosing system [15].
5. The system as claimed in claim 1 further includes an anti-sealant system [18] which is dosed to protect the RO membrane system [21] from scaling.
6. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein pH of the treated RO product water is corrected using a pH booster [22].
Dated this 16th day of November 2016