And if you cant solve your water supply problem, then thats when we say, Do desal, but do it right., Sign up for the latest news about climate change, energy and the environment, delivered every Thursday. J. Ask them here. Forward osmosis (FO) technology is different from RO technology. The practice of desalinating salt water is becoming more common worldwide. Unsurprisingly, projects of large scale, RE-based desalination are being increasingly developed for industrial (Moore, 2018; Dixon, 2013) as well as domestic water supply (DiPaola, 2019). PhD thesis. The scaling of EDR is reduced by periodically switching the polarity of the electrodes. Ocean Thermal Energy and Desalination. Seawater is pumped through these pipes into the large sand-filled tanks in back, where the sand filters out impurities that could destroy the reverse-osmosis membranes. de-la-Ossa-Carretero J.A., Del-Pilar-Ruso Y., Loya-Fernndez A., Ferrero-Vicente L.M., Marco-Mndez C., Martinez-Garcia E., Snchez-Lizaso J.L. The effect of physical accessibility and service level of water supply on economic accessibility: a case study of Bandung City, Indonesia. Rodrguez-Ferrero N., Salas-Velasco M., Sanchez-Martnez M.T. Sign up here for Climate Fwd:, our email newsletter. But it is actually a very valuable source of minerals.. At best, said the authors of the European Commission study, desalination can be a far-reaching, climate change mitigating, water security solution.. Seawater desalination is the process of removing dissolved minerals from seawater to make it suitable for human consumption. 104, 11351144. Analyzing precipitationsheds to understand the vulnerability of rainfall dependent regions. It can be seen that the cost of ocean thermal energy only used for seawater desalination is higher than that of traditional desalination technologies such as RO due to the difficulty in extracting deep cold seawater. The environmental impact can be fully controlled so as not to pose long-term threats, if driven by renewable energy. Pistocchi A., Bleninger T., Dorati C. Screening the hurdles to sea disposal of desalination brine around the Mediterranean. Technology brief. Prod. Self-propelled Dropwise Condensation on a Gradient Surface. This article was published more than1 year ago. Impact of the brine from a desalination plant on a shallow seagrass (Posidonia oceanica) meadow. doi:10.1016/j.cherd.2020.10.003, Nguyen, T.-Q., Tung, K.-L., Lin, Y.-L., Dong, C.-D., Chen, C.-W., and Wu, C.-H. (2021). Salt isnt the only thing that hangs out in seawater: Theres also often a lot of boron, which isnt good for crops and in large concentrations might be unhealthy for humans. Nat. Appl. The traditional seawater desalination technologies have the problems such as high investment, high energy consumption, and environmental pollution, the seawater desalination technology based on renewable energy is an effective way to solve the above problems (Chen et al., 2014). The high capital costs of desalination plants, though, suggest energy buffering is often a better option (Caldera and Breyer, 2018).. Todays battery costs are still high (Freyberg, 2018), a reason for 100% RES-based desalination plants to be still confined mainly to small scale and remote applications (Freyberg, 2018; IRENA, 2012; Cipollina etal., 2015; Brian Publicover, 2019). Other plants dot the West Coast. Heat Mass Transf. The site is secure. Energy efficient desalination is now ready to harness renewable energy sources (RE), particularly photovoltaics (PV) combined with battery storage, in increasingly competitive ways, so as to become carbon-neutral. Additionally, emerging desalination technologies, such as membrane distillation (MD) combining thermal energy and membrane separation, can be driven by low-grade heat rather than electricity. Polyamide Membranes with Net-like Nanostructures Induced by Different Charged MOFs for Elevated Nanofiltration. Eng. Desalination is usually regarded as an extreme solution for water supply, to be implemented in the absence of alternatives. 2019. Precipitation recycling. It is predicted that three-quarters of the population in the world will suffer from freshwater shortages by 2050. Obvious targets are calcium and magnesium, which occur naturally in seawater and remain in the brine through the desalination process. Worldwide, desalination is increasingly seen as one possible answer to problems of water quantity and quality that will worsen with global population growth and the extreme heat and prolonged drought linked to climate change. Desalination 442, 7588. Cohen Y., Semiat R., Rahardianto A. Brine disposal is often rightly described as a potential source of impact on marine ecosystems. Bleninger T., Jirka G.H. van der Ent R.J., Savenije H.H.G., Schaefli B., Steele-Dunne S.C. And if that energy comes from dirty sources, desalination can lead to a paradoxical outcome: It can unleash greenhouse gases, worsening global warming, increasing droughts and therefore the need for more desalination. Renewable water supplies in most of these countries already fall well below the United Nations definition of absolute water scarcity, which is about 350 gallons per person per day, and a 2017 report from the World Bank suggests that climate change will be the biggest factor increasing the pressure on water supplies in the future. Other contaminants can also get in. Electric water pressure pumps and reverse-osmosis membrane tubes at the Sawaco Desalination Plant in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The lobby of the Kaust Physical Science and Engineering Division. Economies of scale are an important push for centralized, large scale plants with high efficiency and recovery (possibly including brine resources recycling in some cases). The ideal RO membrane should have good mechanical properties, thermal stability, high desalination rate, low cost, and less impact on pH and temperature. In the policy debate, desalination is often seen as a threat for its high energy requirements, but it has not been sufficiently noted that it can be 100% decarbonized as highlighted in recent systematic assessments. Eltahir E.A.B., Bras R.L. Bogdanov, Dmitrii, Javier Farfan, Kristina Sadovskaia, Arman Aghahosseini, Michael Child, Ashish Gulagi, Ayobami Solomon Oyewo, Larissa de Souza Noel Simas Barbosa & Christian Breyer, Radical transformation pathway towards sustainable electricity via evolutionary steps. When this is the case, the distance at which dilution is sufficient can be reduced to a few tens of meters (Bleninger and Jirka, 2008). Assessment of productive efficiency in irrigated areas of Andalusia. At the same time, though, we have to address potentially severe downsides of desalination the harm of brine and chemical pollution to the marine environment and human health.. In the 100 million m3/year capacity plant of Tuas Spring (Singapore), the intake is only about 150m from the brine discharge, proving negligible impact on salinity at that distance. Also the costs of PV and onshore wind power plants have decreased in the last years (Jansen, 2019), and RE account now for about 1/3 of the global power capacity (Bellini, 2019; IRENA, 2019), becoming cheaper than nonrenewable energy in a growing number of cases (Lazard, 2018a, Lazard, 2018b). All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Therm. Thomas Altmann, vice president for technology with ACWA Power, which develops, owns and operates desalination and power plants worldwide, said that plants that operate on renewable power 24 hours a day remained a goal. Want climate news in your inbox? There are also thermodynamic limits to how much more efficient plants can be made. In a study by Liu et al., the desalination rate of brackish water in ED/EDR reached 90% with electricity consumption of 1kWh/m3 (Liu and Wang, 2017). Impacts of desalination plant discharges on the marine environment: a critical review of published studies. Yet it should be clearly stressed that the impacts are well manageable. The seawater desalination technology based on ocean thermal energy is suitable for low latitude regions with the most effective method of flash evaporation technology (Gao et al., 2019). September 18, 2022. by . On the other hand, achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century (IPCC, 2018) implies covering 100% of energy generation with RE (Bogdanov etal., 2019; Hansen etal., 2019): a strong demand-pull to develop RE-based desalination. Lazard Lazards levelized cost of storage analysis v. 4.0, November 2018. Chem. Why cant we take some of that big, blue body of water and move it into the increasingly parched territory that borders it? Data details and sources are in Supplementary Material, Note 3. What questions do you have about climate change? Visualization Study of Flow Condensation in Hydrophobic Microchannels. Les tensions sur leau en Europe et dans le bassin mditerranen. Introduction. The most widespread current practice is to pump the brine back into the sea. A Thermally-Driven Seawater Desalination System: Proof of Concept and Vision for Future Sustainability. Kausts golf course, the only greenery not irrigated with desalinated water. Desalination 459, 59104. Desalination can be a sustainable way to replenish our water cycle: after primary uses (industrial or domestic), reuse of desalinated water for irrigation enables agriculture in otherwise unproductive regions, and/or forest growth. Moreover, desalination can have virtually no environmental costs. In this flash evaporation system, the surface warm seawater is flash evaporated by a vacuum pump at a low temperature, and the vapor produced is exchanged with the deep cold seawater and condensed into fresh water (Jin et al., 2017). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. THUWAL, Saudi Arabia Desalinated seawater is the lifeblood of Saudi Arabia, nowhere more so than at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, an international research center that rose from the dry, empty desert a decade ago. Appendix ASupplementary Material as notes to this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2020.115906. However, resource recovery may become more attractive in the future, and help reduce the brine volumes to dispose of. There are environmental costs to desalination as well: in the emissions of greenhouse gases from the large amount of energy used, and in the disposal of the brine, which in addition to being extremely salty is laced with toxic treatment chemicals. Careers, Unable to load your collection due to an error. Eventually, backers hope, extracting the minerals from the high-salt leftovers will become economically viable, even though its usually not right now. The generated vapor is condensed into fresh water while heating the front seawater, and the remaining seawater is sent to the next flash evaporator and vaporized at lower pressure (Khawaji et al., 2008). (2022). Diallo etal., 2015, Quist-Jensen etal., 2016; Loganathan etal., 2017). Semiat Raphael, Sapoznik Jacob, Hasson David. Potential of global land water recycling to mitigate local temperature extremes. Everyone wants to be a digital nomad. Lower pane: comparison of average concentrations in seawater and upper Earth crust (with 1:1 line). At the university here, engineers are aiming to do just that. 2019. Adequate water pricing is prerequisite to secure the large investments required by desalination, and water pricing requires a stable water governance. Desalination costs still seem excessive in less developed economies (e.g., Gude, 2016). Fresh water comes out of plastic pipes at the end of each tube. 2) Develop new technologies for desalination technology using renewable energy. In the late 1970s, the technology of low-temperature multiple effect distillation (LT-MED) that utilizes low-grade steam at temperatures of 5070C is developed by IDE company, which reduces desalination costs, mitigates corrosion and scaling issues, resulting in the cost of producing fresh water is reduced to $0.738 per ton (Liu et al., 2021). doi:10.1016/j.watres.2015.02.032, Wang, X., Christ, A., Regenauer-Lieb, K., Hooman, K., and Chua, H. T. (2011). The future cost of electrical energy storage based on experience rates. Tedesco etal., 2017), it can similarly marginally offset the energy demand of desalination. Along with water conservation, storage and recycling, it includes desalination of more seawater. Environ. Desalination 495, 114633. doi:10.1016/j.desal.2020.114633, Gao, W., Qi, J., Zhang, J., Chen, G., and Wu, D. (2019). Similar considerations apply to Br and Mg, although the latter may have a higher economic interest. Miller S., Shemer H., Semiat R. Energy and environmental issues in desalination. The state of desalination and brine production: a global outlook. We are trying to develop new processes, to consume less energy and be more environmentally friendly, said Noreddine Ghaffour, a researcher in the Water Desalination and Reuse Center at the university, which is universally known as Kaust. Synthesis and Characterization of Novel Thin Film Nanocomposite (TFN) Membranes Embedded with Halloysite Nanotubes (HNTs) for Water Desalination. The Optimization of ED Process. Publicover Brian. Technol. 2018. Therefore, adequate dilution in the near field is key to ensure control of impacts. Before Often, because water is considered a basic right, our societies warrant access to water at subsidized prices (e.g. However, the separation process is energy intensive and expensive and has a high carbon footprint [Darwish et al. This paper introduces the traditional seawater desalination technologies and the desalination technology based on ocean thermal energy with great development potential. Seawater Desalination Technology and Engineering in China: A Review. Generally, yes. doi:10.1016/j.desal.2018.05.008, Keywords: seawater desalination, multiple effect distillation, multi-stage flash, reverse osmosis, ocean thermal energy, Citation: Wang J and Huo E (2022) Opportunities and Challenges of Seawater Desalination Technology. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.12.012, Liu, S., Wang, Z., Han, M., and Zhang, J. Des. doi:10.1021/es801330u, Subramani, A., and Jacangelo, J. G. (2015). Manag. EH contributed to conception of the study. The net-zero scenarios defined by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Energy Transitions Commission show that 15 %-20 % of global energy demand in 2050 will be fulfilled through hydrogen (and fuels derived from it) [28].As a result of this projection, global green hydrogen projects are growing very fast, where a target of 206 gigawatts (30 million tons per year) in installed . Per the cumulative completed desalination capacity exhibited in Fig. Worldwide Research Trends on Desalination. Despite a practically limitless supply of seawater, desalinated water still accounts for about 1 percent of the worlds fresh water. The mechanical behavior of graphene has been intensely studied in the last years and it has been shown that it is significantly affected by the presence of structural holes, e.g., atom vacancies in the graphene lattice, which can dramatically reduce the . Mesa-jurado, M.A. Clean. At present, there are 19,000 existing desalination plants, which can produce more than 1 108m3/day of freshwater (Alrowais et al., 2022). The MSF is based on the flash evaporation principle, and the MSF process is shown in Figure 1B (Zhao et al., 2018). Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher. Wells are drying up in California. Desalination 39, 159168. But the process is energy-intensive, costly and complicated to manage in an Earth-friendly way. Telefoni 064 30 50 701 011 2768 408 011 3292 999 e-mail: sailing@lamar.rs WWW: www.lamar.rs. Right next door, theres the Pacific Ocean. The Global Status of Desalination: An Assessment of Current Desalination Technologies, Plants and Capacity. (2021). The .gov means its official. Desalination 491, 114569. doi:10.1016/j.desal.2020.114569, Ng, Z. C., Lau, W. J., Matsuura, T., and Ismail, A. F. (2021). The main problem with this technology is that the fresh water in the draw solution is difficult to separate, the principle of FO is shown in Figure 1D. Thermally-driven desalination technologies mainly include multiple effect distillation (MED) and multi-stage flash (MSF) (Aly et al., 2021). desalination of sea water can be best achived by. B., et al. Water Res. Even in Saudi Arabia, where vast oil reserves (and the wealth that comes from them) have made the country the worlds desalination leader, responsible for about one-fifth of global production, there is a realization that the process must be made more affordable and sustainable. (2021). As a consequence, the costs of water are often borne by the society through taxes, transfers or cross-subsidization, or by accepting a certain level of stress in aquatic ecosystem in order to reduce the direct monetary price paid for water. 5. Milln M.M., Estrela M.J., Sanz M.J., Mantilla E., Martin M., Pastor F., Salvador R., Vallejo R., Alonso L., Gangoiti G., Ilardia J.L., Navazo M., Albizuri A., Artinano B., Ciccioli P., Kallos G., Carvalho R.A., Andres D., Hoff A., Werhahn J., Seufert G., Versino B. Climatic feedbacks and desertification: the mediterranean model.