Comparison of Membrane-based Solutions for Water Reclamation and Desalination

Côté, Pierre; Siverns, Steve; Monti, Sandro

doi:10.1016/j.desal.2005.04.015

Cited by 79 publications

(18 citation statements)

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“…Seawater desalination is analyzed with two different pretreatment processes to evaluate the advantages of emerging membrane pretreatment processes versus more conventional processes. Studies have shown that membrane pretreatment provides a more reliable, higher quality product (31,32). The functional unit of the analysis is one cubic meter (m 3 ).…”

Section: Case Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Energy and Air Emission Effects of Water Supply

Stokes

Horvath

2009

Environ. Sci. Technol.

222

116

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Life-cycle air emission effects of supplying water are explored using a hybrid life-cycle assessment. For the typically sized U.S. utility analyzed, recycled water is preferable to desalination and comparable to importation. Seawater desalination has an energy and air emission footprint that is 1.5-2.4 times larger than that of imported water. However, some desalination modes fare better; brackish groundwater is 53-66% as environmentally intensive as seawater desalination. The annual water needs (326 m 3 ) of a typical Californian that is met with imported water requires 5.8 GJ of energy and creates 360 kg of CO 2 equivalent emissions. With seawater desalination, energy use would increase to 14 GJ and 800 kg of CO 2 equivalent emissions. Meeting the water demand of California with desalination would consume 52% of the state's electricity. Supply options were reassessed using alternative electricity mixes, including the average mix of the United States and several renewable sources. Desalination using solar thermal energy has lower greenhouse gas emissions than that of imported and recycled water (using California's electricity mix), but using the U.S. mix increases the environmental footprint by 1.5 times. A comparison with a more energy-intensive international scenario shows that CO 2 equivalent emissions for desalination in Dubai are 1.6 times larger than in California. The methods, decision support tool (WEST), and results of this study should persuade decision makers to make informed water policy choices by including energy consumption and material use effects in the decision-making process.

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Section: Case Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Energy and Air Emission Effects of Water Supply

Stokes

Horvath

2009

Environ. Sci. Technol.

222

116

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“…For these plants surface water outfall is not a disposal option. Even with advances in membrane production costs to have less expensive membranes, longer membrane life, and energy recovery improvements, the cost of concentrate management represents an increasing percentage of the total water treatment plant cost [377]. Table 20 shows that the cost for pretreatment and RO treatment of produced water increases as the concentration of the concentrate increases.…”

Section: Concentrate Management Cost For MDmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Colorado School of Mines report [328] presents a comprehensive summary of technical assessment of pre-treatment and post-treatment processes for produced water. Based on current concentrate disposal limitations, reclamation of effluents for irrigation and indirect potable water uses is rapidly developing as an alternative to seawater desalination [377]. Cote et al [377] compared the total life cycle costs for treating water from secondary effluent using RO and seawater desalination, and found that they are $0.28/m opportunity for MD in that, being a thermal process, it can concentrate saline water to the precipitation of salts with minimal drop in flux performance.…”

Section: Concentrate Management Cost For MDmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Based on current concentrate disposal limitations, reclamation of effluents for irrigation and indirect potable water uses is rapidly developing as an alternative to seawater desalination [377]. Cote et al [377] compared the total life cycle costs for treating water from secondary effluent using RO and seawater desalination, and found that they are $0.28/m opportunity for MD in that, being a thermal process, it can concentrate saline water to the precipitation of salts with minimal drop in flux performance. By analyzing the cost of disposal in brine lagoons in Table 22, it is observed that technologies to reduce the disposal volume have good economic incentives.…”

Section: Concentrate Management Cost For MDmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Advances in Membrane Distillation for Water Desalination and Purification Applications

Camacho

Dumée

Zhang

et al. 2013

Water

594

342

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Membrane distillation is a process that utilizes differences in vapor pressure to permeate water through a macro-porous membrane and reject other non-volatile constituents present in the influent water. This review considers the fundamental heat and mass transfer processes in membrane distillation, recent advances in membrane technology, module configurations, and the applications and economics of membrane distillation, and identifies areas that may lead to technological improvements in membrane distillation as well as the application characteristics required for commercial deployment. Keywordsa function of temperature, vapor pressure, and of the gas molecular mass K 0 membrane characteristic defined by Equation (9) Kn Knudsen number K(T) a function of temperature and molecular weight of the gas l mean free path of the molecules l m distance between parallel spacer fibres (m) LEP Limit Entry Pressure (kPa) M molecular mass (g/mol) M w molecular weights of water (g/mol) M a molecular weights of air (g/mol) n number of CNTs per unit cross section in bucky-paper P pressure in the air gap (kPa) half time to reach the maximum intensity-laser flash technique (s) t proportion of conductive heat (balance due to evaporative heat) loss through the membrane T mean temperature in the pores (K)

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“…Despite the advantage of providing a water supply option independent of climate, seawater desalination plants also have the potential to negatively impact coastal ecosystems and communities, depending on the design, locations, and local context of these plants [22,43,8]. Examples of socio-economic impacts include increased price of water -since the technology is relatively expensive [10,15,33,63,9], loss of public access to coastal areas, disruption of commercial and recreational activities, and aesthetic alterations of coastal landscapes [43,6,64]. Indirect environmental impacts on marine ecosystems, such as ocean acidification and sea-level rise, may occur due to the high energy consumption of desalination plants and subsequent increase in greenhouse gas emissions [46,9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Management priorities for seawater desalination plants in a marine protected area: A multi-criteria analysis

et al. 2017

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The development of seawater desalination plants to increase water reliability in coastal areas poses a threat to the health of near shore marine ecosystems and may affect the effectiveness of marine protected areas (MPAs) that have been established to meet international conservation targets. This paper applies a multi-criteria analysis approach to quantify stakeholder groups' priorities for seawater desalination plants that have been proposed in communities adjacent to a National Marine Sanctuary. All groups placed the highest importance on minimizing environmental impacts on protected areas and endangered species that could be affected by water intake and brine discharge emphasizing the need for integrated land and sea conservation. Minimizing socio-economic impacts on coastal communities was much less important. Stakeholders also weighted reducing pressure on water levels in rivers, streams, and aquifers as more important than increasing water for residential consumption, which may foster coastal growth rather than replacing water taken from other sources. The study further revealed differences in the importance of multiple management objectives among stakeholder groups, which highlights the need to elicit distinct priorities of all groups to understand concerns and potential conflicts of desalination with existing marine users. The analysis of consistency ratios revealed that around half of all surveyed stakeholders had high inconsistencies in their responses, which suggests either a lack of understanding of desalination, or reflects the complexity of establishing desalination plants in coastal areas adjacent to a marine protected area.

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Comparison of Membrane-based Solutions for Water Reclamation and Desalination

Cited by 79 publications

References 0 publications

Energy and Air Emission Effects of Water Supply

Energy and Air Emission Effects of Water Supply

Advances in Membrane Distillation for Water Desalination and Purification Applications

Management priorities for seawater desalination plants in a marine protected area: A multi-criteria analysis

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