The global status of desalination: An assessment of current desalination technologies, plants and capacity

Eke, Joyner; Yusuf, Ahmed; Giwa, Adewale; Sodiq, Ahmed

doi:10.1016/j.desal.2020.114633

Cited by 303 publications

(127 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…The data suggest that NF and NM have the highest score (after RO), i.e., these technologies have favorable characteristics to stay in the membrane market. This behavior agrees with that reported in the literature [ 49 , 85 ]. RO does not have maximum score due to its demanding level of pretreatment.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 93%

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Comparative Analysis of Conventional and Emerging Technologies for Seawater Desalination: Northern Chile as A Case Study

et al. 2021

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The aim of this work was to study different desalination technologies as alternatives to conventional reverse osmosis (RO) through a systematic literature review. An expert panel evaluated thermal and membrane processes considering their possible implementation at a pilot plant scale (100 m3/d of purified water) starting from seawater at 20 °C with an average salinity of 34,000 ppm. The desalination plant would be located in the Atacama Region (Chile), where the high solar radiation level justifies an off-grid installation using photovoltaic panels. We classified the collected information about conventional and emerging technologies for seawater desalination, and then an expert panel evaluated these technologies considering five categories: (1) technical characteristics, (2) scale-up potential, (3) temperature effect, (4) electrical supply options, and (5) economic viability. Further, the potential inclusion of graphene oxide and aquaporin-based biomimetic membranes in the desalinization processes was analyzed. The comparative analysis lets us conclude that nanomembranes represent a technically and economically competitive alternative versus RO membranes. Therefore, a profitable desalination process should consider nanomembranes, use of an energy recovery system, and mixed energy supply (non-conventional renewable energy + electrical network). This document presents an up-to-date overview of the impact of emerging technologies on desalinated quality water, process costs, productivity, renewable energy use, and separation efficiency.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 93%

“…Reprocessing the permeate or using consecutive desalination NF-RO stages improves the selectivity of the process. Typical NF installed capacities are found between 1000 and 100,000 m 3 /d [ 48 , 49 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative Analysis of Conventional and Emerging Technologies for Seawater Desalination: Northern Chile as A Case Study

et al. 2021

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“…In 3 /day of freshwater production from desalination plants, distributed as follows: Middle East (39%), Asia (others) (21%), Americas (18%), Europe (11%), Africa (8%) and Oceania (3%) [52].…”

Section: Desalination For Fresh Water Supplymentioning

confidence: 99%

Sea Level Rise Mitigation by Global Sea Water Desalination Using Renewable-Energy-Powered Plants

et al. 2021

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This work suggests a solution for preventing/eliminating the predicted Sea Level Rise (SLR) by seawater desalination and storage through a large number of desalination plants distributed worldwide; it also comprises that the desalinated seawater can resolve the global water scarcity by complete coverage for global water demand. Sea level rise can be prevented by desalinating the additional water accumulated into oceans annually for human consumption, while the excess amount of water can be stored in dams and lakes. It is predicted that SLR can be prevented by desalination plants. The chosen desalination plants for the study were Multi-Effect Desalination (MED) and Reverse Osmosis (RO) plants that are powered by renewable energy using wind and solar technologies. It is observed that the two main goals of the study are fulfilled when preventing an SLR between 1.0 m and 1.3 m by 2100 through seawater desalination, as the amount of desalinated water within that range can cover the global water demand while being economically viable.

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“…Furthermore, the recent environmental concerns and legal regulations require minimizing the environmental impacts of brine disposal from SWRO plants as well as wastewater treatment plants [ 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ]. For example, the total global installed desalination capacity is 97.2 million m 3 /day while the total global cumulative contracted capacity is 114.9 million m 3 /day as of the middle of Feb 2020 [ 17 ], that is, a huge amount of brine (about 140 million m 3 /day) was discharged into the ocean (under an acceptable assumption that its water recovery ratio was 42% [ 16 ]). Therefore, brine management has been recognized as an important matter due to the rapid increase in the number of desalination plants.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cellulose Triacetate (CTA) Hollow-Fiber (HF) Membranes for Sustainable Seawater Desalination: A Review

et al. 2021

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Cellulose triacetate (CTA)-based hollow fiber (HF) membrane is one of the commercially successful semipermeable membranes that has had a long progress since the time the excellent semi-permeable feature of cellulose-based polymers was found in 1957. Because of the reliable and excellent performances, especially for drinking water production from seawater, CTA-HFs have been widely used as reverse osmosis (RO) membranes, especially in arid regions. In this review, recent developments and research trends on CTA-HF membranes for seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) plants were presented. A flux analytical model, an optimization strategy for chlorine injection without losing salt rejection performance, and a module of current high performance CTA RO membranes along with its plant operation data were updated in this paper. Furthermore, a newly developed CTA-HF membrane for brine concentration (BC) application (called BC membrane) was also addressed. Finally, RO/BC hybrid operation was introduced as an effective SWRO desalination technique that enables minimizing the volume of brine disposal from the RO plant by increasing the recovery ratio and the subsequent amount of produced freshwater, without an additional energy input.

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The global status of desalination: An assessment of current desalination technologies, plants and capacity

Cited by 303 publications

References 38 publications

Comparative Analysis of Conventional and Emerging Technologies for Seawater Desalination: Northern Chile as A Case Study

Comparative Analysis of Conventional and Emerging Technologies for Seawater Desalination: Northern Chile as A Case Study

Sea Level Rise Mitigation by Global Sea Water Desalination Using Renewable-Energy-Powered Plants

Cellulose Triacetate (CTA) Hollow-Fiber (HF) Membranes for Sustainable Seawater Desalination: A Review

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