Geothermal desalination

About: Geothermal desalination is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1536 publications have been published within this topic receiving 46891 citations.

A comprehensive techno-economical review of indirect solar desalination

Abstract: Solar powered desalination has been the focus of great interest recently worldwide. In the past, majority of the experimental investigations focused on solar coupled thermally driven conventional desalination technologies such as Multi-Stage Flash (MSF) and Multi-Effect Distillation (MED). With the advancement in membrane technology and its advantages such as high Recovery Ratios (RR) and low specific energy requirements Reverse Osmosis (RO) desalination has gained popularity. Currently, 52% of the indirect solar desalination plants are RO based with MED and MSF having a 13% and 9% share respectively. Membrane Distillation (MD) based plants represent 16% of the total and have been a focus of recent research efforts. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of all the indirect solar desalination technologies along with plant specific technical details. Efforts assessing the economic feasibility and cost affecting parameters for each desalination technology are also reviewed.

Membrane technology in renewable-energy-driven desalination

Abstract: Growing requirements of freshwater and unsustainable nature of fossil fuels are driving the interest in using renewable energy for desalination applications. Due to their less energy-intensive nature and small footprint, membrane-based desalination operations are gaining significant interest in this regard. Substantial efforts have been observed in integrating traditional renewable and relatively green sources of energy (wind, solar, geothermal, tidal and nuclear) with membrane-based desalination operations, mainly reverse osmosis (RO) and electrodialysis (ED). Due to recent developments and progresses in membrane technology, interesting membrane operations including membrane distillation (MD), pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) and reverse electrodialysis (RED) have emerged. These operations are capable of generating clean and sustainable electricity from various waste streams including brine and impaired water which otherwise are considered environmental liabilities. PRO and RED require mixing of a high salinity solution (such as seawater or brine and wastewater, respectively) with a low salinity solution to generate electricity. MD has shown the potential to generate freshwater and electricity as standalone process. Integration of MD with PRO or RED enhances the performance of these processes and provides a clean and sustainable route to produce freshwater and energy. The current study reviews the recent progresses and developments in applying renewable energy sources in membrane-based desalination with special attention on emerging membrane operations with proven capability to generate energy from wastewater streams.

Energy and air emission effects of water supply.

Abstract: 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 m3) of a typical Californian that is met with imported water requires 5.8 GJ of energy and creates 360 kg of CO2 equivalent emissions. With seawater desalination, energy use would increase to 14 GJ and 800 kg of CO2 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 th...