Recent Desalination Technologies by Hybridization and Integration with Reverse Osmosis: A Review

Abstract

Reverse osmosis is the leading technology for desalination of brackish water and seawater, important for solving the growing problems of fresh water supply. Thermal technologies such as multi-effect distillation and multi-stage flash distillation still comprise an important portion of the world’s desalination capacity. They consume substantial amounts of energy, generally obtained from fossil fuels, due to their low efficiency. Hybridization is a strategy that seeks to reduce the weaknesses and enhance the advantages of each element that makes it up. This paper introduces a review of the most recent publications on hybridizations between reverse osmosis and thermal desalination technologies, as well as their integration with renewable energies as a requirement to decarbonize desalination processes. Different configurations provide improvements in key elements of the system to reduce energy consumption, brine production, and contamination, while improving product quality and production rate. A combination of renewable sources and use of energy and water storage systems allow for improving the reliability of hybrid systems.

Modern Use of Water Produced by Purification of Municipal Wastewater: A Case Study

“…It seems reasonable to predict that such membranes could be available for full-scale application in the short-medium term [23]. When applied to seawater desalination, a different but not ready applicable way is to use new separation technologies characterized by better performance and economic feasibility [20,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31].…”

“…We did not find any evidence on the construction of new plants of the classic evaporative (MSF), multiple effects distillation (MED), or thermocompression (VTC) types. Of these, the RO-PRO is the one that appears most interesting both in terms of feasibility on an industrial scale and for future prospects [22,30,[32][33][34][35][36]. This integration can be achieved with different schemes and with different types of impaired, low salinity water.…”

A Separation and Desalination Process for Farmland Saline-Alkaline Water

“…Regarding separation and desalination of saline-alkaline water, there is an urgent need for a technique that can be employed to separate and desalinate agricultural saline-alkaline water. To date, there has been a lack of research on separation and desalination techniques for farmland saline-alkaline water, with investigations in this field mainly focusing on seawater desalination techniques, such as solar-driven seawater desalination [15,16], multistage flash (MSF) [17,18], humidification-dehumidification (HDH) [19,20], and membrane filtration [21][22][23]. In 2014, Mamouri et al [24] explored the effects of heat-collecting temperature, solar irradiation intensity, and other factors on the performance of a collector tube by developing a saline water desalination device consisting of a solar collector tube and a brine evaporator, with an inclination of 35 • C. In 2015, Mosleh et al [25] added a trough reflector on the collector tube to increase its absorption rate.…”

Research on Design of the Safety Supervision System for Desalinated Seawater Entering Urban Water Supply Network

“…Many cities have actively developed various water treatment technologies to utilize multiple water sources [3][4][5]. Among them, seawater desalination has attracted social attention because of its mature technology and wider application [6][7][8][9]. Desalinated seawater gradually enters the urban water supply network on a large scale, which will become the development trend of multiple water sources comprehensive utilization in many cities (especially in coastal cities) [10].…”