Full cost in desalination. A case study of the Segura River Basin

Lapuente, Enrique

doi:10.1016/j.desal.2012.06.002

Cited by 67 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…This Programme redirected water policy in Spain from water transfers to sea water desalinisation, including the construction of numerous new desalination plants on the Mediterranean coast for urban and agricultural supply [16]. As a result, the structure of available water resources in the SRB is changing, with an increasing inclusion of non-traditional water sources, especially desalinated sea water; this entails higher energy consumption and, consequently, higher GHG emissions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Energy and greenhouse-gas emissions in irrigated agriculture of SE (southeast) Spain. Effects of alternative water supply scenarios

Martín-Górriz

Soto-García

Álvarez

2014

Energy

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Energy and greenhouse-gas emissions in irrigated agriculture of SE (southeast) Spain. Effects of alternative water supply scenarios

Martín-Górriz

Soto-García

Álvarez

2014

Energy

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“…The SRB shows serious pollution problems in its surface and groundwater bodies (Grindlay et al, 2011) and is among the most complex river basins in Europe as far as management is concerned. The SRB displays some peculiarities: its groundwater resources are highly regulated, there is extensive use of groundwater (Martínez-Paz and Perni, 2011) and alternative resources are employed, such as transfers with two neighbouring basins (Kroll et al, 2013), reuse of treated wastewater (Rodenas and Albacete, 2014) and coastal desalination plants (Lapuente, 2012). Therefore, this case study presents nearly all the sources of pollutants and resources that can be found in a river basin; so, beyond its particular interest, this study was intended to set some guidelines for the application of the methodology in further studies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grey water footprint assessment at the river basin level: Accounting method and case study in the Segura River Basin, Spain

Pellicer-Martínez

Martínez‐Paz

2016

Ecological Indicators

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“…Presently, there are more than 18,000 water desalination plants operating in 150 countries, producing 86.8 × 10 6 m 3 of water per day, enough for 300 million people (5,6). The annual energy consumed by these plants is nominally 75 TWh, accounting for 50% of their operating costs (7)(8)(9) and 0.4% of the world electric power consumption (10). The possibility of directly using renewable energy would reduce this highly demanding cost of operation and make affordable clean water more accessible around the world.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Nanophotonics-enabled solar membrane distillation for off-grid water purification

Dongare

Alabastri

Pedersen

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

356

254

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With more than a billion people lacking accessible drinking water, there is a critical need to convert nonpotable sources such as seawater to water suitable for human use. However, energy requirements of desalination plants account for half their operating costs, so alternative, lower energy approaches are equally critical. Membrane distillation (MD) has shown potential due to its low operating temperature and pressure requirements, but the requirement of heating the input water makes it energy intensive. Here, we demonstrate nanophotonicsenabled solar membrane distillation (NESMD), where highly localized photothermal heating induced by solar illumination alone drives the distillation process, entirely eliminating the requirement of heating the input water. Unlike MD, NESMD can be scaled to larger systems and shows increased efficiencies with decreased input flow velocities. Along with its increased efficiency at higher ambient temperatures, these properties all point to NESMD as a promising solution for household-or community-scale desalination.our billion people around the world face at least 1 month of water scarcity every year (1, 2). To meet increasing water demand, it has become necessary to exploit saline water, abundant in the ocean and in brackish aquifers, and convert it to potable water (3, 4). Presently, there are more than 18,000 water desalination plants operating in 150 countries, producing 86.8 × 10 6 m 3 of water per day, enough for 300 million people (5, 6). The annual energy consumed by these plants is nominally 75 TWh, accounting for 50% of their operating costs (7-9) and 0.4% of the world electric power consumption (10). The possibility of directly using renewable energy would reduce this highly demanding cost of operation and make affordable clean water more accessible around the world.Many of the current desalination techniques involve phase change, and thus are inherently energy intensive. Among these, membrane distillation (MD) has gained recent attention because it can distill water at lower temperatures than conventional distillation (i.e., boiling) and lower pressures than reverse osmosis (RO) (11-16). In the conventional direct-contact MD process, hot saline water (feed) and cold purified water (distillate) flow on opposite sides of a hydrophobic membrane (Fig. 1A). The temperature difference between the two flows produces a vapor pressure difference across the membrane, leading to (salt-free) water vapor transporting through the membrane from the warmer feed to the colder distillate, where it condenses. However, MD suffers from several inherent limitations. Heat transfer reduces the cross-membrane temperature difference, resulting in lower vapor flux across the membrane and thus lower efficiency. This temperature difference is further decreased along the length of the membrane module, resulting in a maximal usable length of a single module.When no recirculation or heat recovery is used, energy is also lost when hot feed water exits the membrane module. Heating the volume of feed wat...

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Full cost in desalination. A case study of the Segura River Basin

Cited by 67 publications

References 10 publications

Energy and greenhouse-gas emissions in irrigated agriculture of SE (southeast) Spain. Effects of alternative water supply scenarios

Energy and greenhouse-gas emissions in irrigated agriculture of SE (southeast) Spain. Effects of alternative water supply scenarios

Grey water footprint assessment at the river basin level: Accounting method and case study in the Segura River Basin, Spain

Nanophotonics-enabled solar membrane distillation for off-grid water purification

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