Aspect 25 is the compressed gas turbo-pump system of any one of Aspects 19 or 20 for use in the method of any one of Aspects 11 to 18.

The terms “about” or “approximately” as used herein are defined as being close to as understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. In one non-limiting embodiment, the terms are defined to be within 10%, preferably within 5%, more preferably within 1%, and most preferably within 0.5%.

The terms “wt. %,” “vol. %,” or “mol. %” refers to a weight, volume, or molar percentage of a component, respectively, based on the total weight, the total volume of material, or total moles, that includes the component. In a non-limiting example, 10 grams of component in 100 grams of the material is 10 wt. % of component.

The term “substantially” and its variations are defined to include ranges within 10%, within 5%, within 1%, or within 0.5%.

The terms “inhibiting” or “reducing” or “preventing” or “avoiding” or any variation of these terms, when used in the claims and/or the specification includes any measurable decrease or complete inhibition to achieve a desired result.

The term “effective,” as that term is used in the specification and/or claims, means adequate to accomplish a desired, expected, or intended result.

The use of the words “a” or “an” when used in conjunction with any of the terms “comprising,” “including,” “containing,” or “having” in the claims, or the specification, may mean “one,” but it is also consistent with the meaning of “one or more,” “at least one,” and “one or more than one.”

The phrase “and/or” can include “and” or “or.” To illustrate, A, B, and/or C can include: A alone, B alone, C alone, a combination of A and B, a combination of A and C, a combination of B and C, or a combination of A, B, and C.

The words “comprising” (and any form of comprising, such as “comprise” and “comprises”), “having” (and any form of having, such as “have” and “has”), “including” (and any form of including, such as “includes” and “include”) or “containing” (and any form of containing, such as “contains” and “contain”) are inclusive or open-ended and do not exclude additional, unrecited elements or method steps.

Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following FIGURES, detailed description, and examples. It should be understood, however, that the FIGURES, detailed description, and examples, while indicating specific embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only and are not meant to be limiting. Additionally, it is contemplated that changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description. In further embodiments, features from specific embodiments may be combined with features from other embodiments. For example, features from one embodiment may be combined with features from any of the other embodiments. In further embodiments, additional features may be added to the specific embodiments described herein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Advantages of the present invention may become apparent to those skilled in the art with the benefit of the following detailed description and upon reference to the accompanying drawings. While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings. The drawings may not be to scale.

FIGURE is a schematic illustration of a proposed system for the movement of a liquid.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

A method and systems for the movement of a liquid are described herein. The methods and systems may be used in desalinating water or on desalination plants. The methods and systems may include a photovoltaic cell (e.g., solar energy convertor), a gas compressor electrically connected to the photovoltaic cell that is capable of powering the gas compressor to compress gas, a compressed gas storage vessel fluidly connected to the gas compressor that is capable of storing compressed gas, and a compressed air-driven motor and/or a compressed air-driven pump fluidly connected to the compressed gas storage vessel that is capable of being driven by the compressed air. In some embodiments, the system further comprises a conduit for a liquid fluidly connected to the compressed air-driven motor and/or a compressed air-driven pump, where the compressed air-driven motor and/or a compressed air-driven pump is capable of moving the liquid through the conduit. The methods and systems may include a desalination unit fluidly connected to the conduit. Also disclosed is a compressed gas turbo-pump system. The compressed gas turbo-pump system may contain and/or use a compressed gas turbo-pump containing a turbine fluidly connected to a compressed gas inlet and a gas outlet, one or more gears capable of being mechanically connected to the turbine and reducing speed and increasing torque of a second gear and/or of a shaft as compared to a speed and torque of the turbine, and/or a liquid pump capable of being driven by the second gear and/or the shaft. This integrated solar-powered desalination and energy storage system may reduce the fluctuation of the system's flow and/or power used to drive the system. In some instances, the methods and/or systems are capable of maintaining consistent power during the day and night. In some instances, the methods and/or systems are capable of reducing the carbon dioxide produced by a process using the system.

These and other non-limiting aspects of the present invention are discussed in further detail in the following sections.

A. System for Movement of a Liquid

The FIG. 1s a schematic illustration of a non-limiting example of a system for movement of a liquid in accordance with the present invention. It discloses the use of renewable electricity sources such as photovoltaic (PV) unit 1, and demonstrates how the electricity generated through PV unit 1 may be used to operate a reverse osmosis (RO) unit 2 and/or a gas compressor 3. The system also discloses a compressed gas storage vessel 4 to store the compressed gas produced by the gas compressor 3. The compressed gas flow from the compressed gas storage vessel 4 may be regulated through a control valve 5 to operate a compressed gas powered motor and/or compressed gas powered pump, turbo pump/motor 6, which in turn operates a RO unit 7. In some instances, the RO unit 2 and the RO unit 7 are the same unit, and electrical power and/or compressed gas power may be used to power at least one of the pumps for the RO units, may be used to run separate pumps, and/or may be switched to power a same pump. In some aspects, the RO unit 2 and the RO unit 7 are different units. In some aspects, the system switches between use of the direct PV energy-operated RO unit 2 and the compressed gas-operated RO unit 7. In some instances, both the direct PV energy-operated RO unit