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Local cost of seawater RO desalination based on solar PV and wind energy: A global estimate
Abstract
This study demonstrates how seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) plants, necessary to meet increasing future global water demand, can be powered solely through renewable energy. Hybrid PV–wind–battery and power-to-gas (PtG) power plants allow for optimal utilisation of the installed desalination capacity, resulting in water production costs competitive with that of existing fossil fuel powered SWRO plants. In this paper, we provide a global estimate of the water production cost for the 2030 desalination demand with renewable electricity generation costs for 2030 for an optimised local system configuration based on an hourly temporal and 0.45° × 0.45° spatial resolution. The SWRO desalination capacity required to meet the 2030 global water demand is estimated to about 2374 million m3/day. The levelised cost of water (LCOW), which includes water production, electricity, water transportation and water storage costs, for regions of desalination demand in 2030, is found to lie between 0.59 €/m3–2.81 €/m3, depending on renewable resource availability and cost of water transport to demand sites. The global system required to meet the 2030 global water demand is estimated to cost 9790 billion € of initial investments. It is possible to overcome the water supply limitations in a sustainable and financially competitive way.
... In the United States, for example, water consumption is 300 gallons per household each day, but in developing countries, it is limited to 150 litres per day, and in Africa, this equates to 20 litres per day . Population growth and global warming have resulted in a growth in freshwater consumption, which through the World Water� programme �(WWP) estimates, by 2030 freshwater resources would reach levels that meet the needs account for only 60% of consumption, and by 2050 and 2010 it will reach 55% and 40%, each, causing a severe water crisis worldwide (Caldera, Bogdanov, and Breyer 2016;Saboori, Sapri, and Bin Baba 2014). This will increase consumption at a rate that doubles every 20 years, with only 10% of water consumption worldwide accounting for domestic consumption, while the rest being the shares of agriculture and industry sectors (70% and 20%, respectively) (Eltawil, Zhengming, and Yuan 2009). ...
... As mentioned before, Iran is surrounded by three main water body that in the Oman Sea coastal line construction of a desalination plant is a vital need, since this region is an arid area with a high-temperature average and it's expected to produce 3.5 bcm/day freshwater by desalination systems until next decade (Gorjian and Ghobadian 2015). Based Caldera, Bogdanov, and Breyer (2016) the demands for desalinated water and associated electrical power for Iran would be 89419 � 10 6 m 3 and 708.7 TWh el , respectively (in 2030). ...
... Seawater has been used as a feedwater resource in numerous desalination plants throughout the world (about 58.85%) (Kucera 2019). International Desalination Association (IDA) reported that the applied capacity raised around 75 million m 3 per day (from 5 to 80 m 3 per day) over 33 years (Caldera, Bogdanov, and Breyer 2016). Table 3 points out that the seawater in the Middle East contributed the most as feedwater in desalination plants (Latteman 2010). ...
Global warming and population growth have been contributing factors to the decline of freshwater resources around the globe. More than 45% of the desalination plants are in the Middle East. Due to the severe scarcity of freshwater resources, Iran also needs to construct several desalination plants, since by 2021 the ratio of freshwater per capita in the country to the world average per capita will be 0.8. The uses of solar, wind, geothermal, and wave are practical in desalination systems. The average solar radiation in Iran is 15.3 kWh/m2/day, which includes more than 2800 hours of radiation per year in central regions. Also wind, geothermal, and wave energy potentials are equalled to 100 � 10 6 MW, 200 MW, and 20 kW/ m, respectively. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the feasibility of using renewable energy for desalination in arid and semi-arid regions and Iran has been considered as a case study. ARTICLE HISTORY
... In the United States, for example, water consumption is 300 gallons per household each day, but in developing countries, it is limited to 150 litres per day, and in Africa, this equates to 20 litres per day (Esmaeilion 2020). Population growth and global warming have resulted in a growth in freshwater consumption, which through the World Water programme (WWP) estimates, by 2030 freshwater resources would reach levels that meet the needs account for only 60% of consumption, and by 2050 and 2010 it will reach 55% and 40%, each, causing a severe water crisis worldwide (Caldera, Bogdanov, and Breyer 2016;Saboori, Sapri, and Bin Baba 2014). This will increase consumption at a rate that doubles every 20 years, with only 10% of water consumption worldwide accounting for domestic consumption, while the rest being the shares of agriculture and industry sectors (70% and 20%, respectively) (Eltawil, Zhengming, and Yuan 2009). ...
... As mentioned before, Iran is surrounded by three main water body that in the Oman Sea coastal line construction of a desalination plant is a vital need, since this region is an arid area with a high-temperature average and it's expected to produce 3.5 bcm/day freshwater by desalination systems until next decade (Gorjian and Ghobadian 2015). Based Caldera, Bogdanov, and Breyer (2016) the demands for desalinated water and associated electrical power for Iran would be 89419 � 10 6 m 3 and 708.7 TWh el , respectively (in 2030). ...
... Seawater has been used as a feedwater resource in numerous desalination plants throughout the world (about 58.85%) (Kucera 2019). International Desalination Association (IDA) reported that the applied capacity raised around 75 million m 3 per day (from 5 to 80 m 3 per day) over 33 years (Caldera, Bogdanov, and Breyer 2016). Table 3 points out that the seawater in the Middle East contributed the most as feedwater in desalination plants (Latteman 2010). ...
Global warming and population growth have been contributing factors to the decline of freshwater resources around 16 the globe. More than 45% of the desalination plants are in the Middle East. Due to the severe scarcity of freshwater 17 resources, Iran also needs to construct several desalination plants, since by 2021 the ratio of freshwater per capita in 18 the country to the world average per capita will be 0.8. The uses of solar, wind, geothermal, and wave are practical 19 in desalination systems. The average solar adiation in Iran is 15.3 kWh/m2/day, which includes more than 2800 hours of radiation per year in central regions. Also wind, geothermal, and wave energy potentials are equaled to 100 *10^6 MW, and 200 MW, and 20 × kW/m, respectively. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the feasibility of using 22 renewable energy for desalination in arid and semi-arid regions and Iran has been considered as a case study.
... It should be said that the costs of the units of water are higher than those produced by RO driven by electrical energy. A recent study indicated that using hybrid photovoltaic batteries and power-to-gas power plants to power RO units will be able to meet the global needs of 2030 at water cost costs ranging from 0.59 to 2.81 €/m 3 (Caldera et al. 2016). ...
... Furthermore, with respect to The Paris Agreement, a CSP-D plant could reduce emissions by > 300,000 t of equivalent CO 2 annually, compared to the conventional fossil-fuelled desalination plant (DEFRA 2005). Even though the technology readiness level of CSP-driven desalination technologies is still quite low, PV-RO systems are highly commercially adopted (Lamei et al. 2008;Caldera et al. 2016;Bilton et al. 2011;Childs et al. 1999;Shalaby 2017;Ali et al. 2018;Salcedo et al. 2012). ...
... It is predicted that only 60% of the demanded water will be available for consumption in 2030 [3]. The Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has predicted that about 40% of the population will live in water-stressed regions by 2050 [4]. It is hard to imagine that more than half of the humans on Earth will not have by 2050 [4]. ...
... The Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has predicted that about 40% of the population will live in water-stressed regions by 2050 [4]. It is hard to imagine that more than half of the humans on Earth will not have by 2050 [4]. It is hard to imagine that more than half of the humans on Earth will not have access to clean, drinkable water. ...
Nowadays, desalination continues to expand globally, which is one of the most effective solutions to solve the problem of the global drinking water shortage. However, desalination is not a fail-safe process and has many environmental and human health consequences. This paper investigated the desalination procedure of seawater with different technologies, namely, multi-stage flash distillation (MSF), multi-effect distillation (MED), and reverse osmosis (RO), and with various energy sources (fossil energy, solar energy, wind energy, nuclear energy). The aim was to examine the different desalination technologies’ effectiveness with energy sources using three assessment methods, which were examined separately. The life cycle assessment (LCA), PESTLE, and multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) methods were used to evaluate each procedure. LCA was based on the following impact analysis and evaluation methods: ReCiPe 2016, IMPACT 2002+, and IPCC 2013 GWP 100a; PESTLE risk analysis evaluated the long-lasting impact on processes and technologies with political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors. Additionally, MCDA was based on the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to the Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method to evaluate desalination technologies. This study considered the operational phase of a plant, which includes the necessary energy and chemical needs, which is called “gate-to-gate” analysis. Saudi Arabia data were used for the analysis, with the base unit of 1 m3 of the water product. As the result of this study, RO combined with renewable energy provided outstanding benefits in terms of human health, ecosystem quality, and resources, as well as the climate change and emissions of GHGs categories.
... Membrane processes use lower energy than thermal processes due to the prevention of seawater evaporation. The reverse osmosis (RO) is a kind of membrane process that is considered a superior desalination technology due to the less energy usage, lower costs, and technological developments (Caldera, Bogdanov & Breyer, 2016;Pakdel et al., 2020). Accordingly, the RO membrane process is considered as the desalination unit in this work. ...
... In this study, the seawater salinity 35 PSU (Practical Salinity Unit) is supposed. Accordingly, the energy efficiency of the SDS 3.0348 kWh/m 3 is calculated (Caldera et al., 2016;Pakdel et al., 2020). ...
This paper proposes an integrated scheduling model for optimal dispatch of cooling, heating, power, gas and water sources in an energy-water microgrid, where the microgrid operator participates in the power, heat, and gas markets and utilizes energy conversion facilities to meet various demands. Further, the role of water and energy storage systems (WESSs) and demand response program (DRP) is investigated on optimal scheduling of the combined cooling, heating, power, gas, and water-based microgrid. In addition, a multi-objective two-stage stochastic optimization model is adopted to minimize the total cost, including operating and emission costs and the amount of potable water extracted from water wells due to the uncertainties of electrical demand, wind power, and electricity market price. Moreover, the epsilon-constraint method and fuzzy satisfying approach are applied to obtain the optimal solution in the multi-objective problem. Ultimately, the simulation results confirm the advantages of simultaneous consideration of WESSs and DRP on the total cost of the proposed energy-water microgrid.
... Water Desalination Plants. Reverse osmosis (RO) plants are employed to desalinate seawater and produce freshwater (Caldera et al., 2016). This technology essentially pumps seawater into a chamber featuring a porous membrane and produces a pressure differential across the membrane, enabling deadend filtration and the recovery of freshwater on the other side of the membrane. ...
... Water Storage Tanks. Water is stored in tanks equipped with electric pumps (Caldera et al., 2016). Three external variables and three internal variables are used. ...
This paper studies the economics of carbon-neutral synthetic fuel production from renewable electricity in remote areas where high-quality renewable resources are abundant. To this end, a graph-based optimisation modelling framework directly applicable to the strategic planning of remote renewable energy supply chains is proposed. More precisely, a hypergraph abstraction of planning problems is introduced, wherein nodes can be viewed as optimisation subproblems with their own parameters, variables, constraints and local objective. Nodes typically represent a subsystem such as a technology, a plant or a process. Hyperedges, on the other hand, express the connectivity between subsystems. The framework is leveraged to study the economics of carbon-neutral synthetic methane production from solar and wind energy in North Africa and its delivery to Northwestern European markets. The full supply chain is modelled in an integrated fashion, which makes it possible to accurately capture the interaction between various technologies on an hourly time scale. Results suggest that the cost of synthetic methane production and delivery would be slightly under 150 €/MWh (higher heating value) by 2030 for a system supplying 10 TWh annually and relying on a combination of solar photovoltaic and wind power plants, assuming a uniform weighted average cost of capital of 7%. A comprehensive sensitivity analysis is also carried out in order to assess the impact of various techno-economic parameters and assumptions on synthetic methane cost, including the availability of wind power plants, the investment costs of electrolysis, methanation and direct air capture plants, their operational flexibility, the energy consumption of direct air capture plants, and financing costs. The most expensive configuration (around 200 €/MWh) relies on solar photovoltaic power plants alone, while the cheapest configuration (around 88 €/MWh) makes use of a combination of solar PV and wind power plants and is obtained when financing costs are set to zero.
... Для получения воды было решено использовать опреснительную установку обратного осмоса. Такая установка будет потреблять около 3 кВтч/м 3 [22]. ...
... ОРЕХ и другие затраты на электролизер были взяты по 50 долларов США/кВт. Для расчета САРЕХ и ОРЕХ на опреснительную установку использовались значения, соответственно, 2,23 евро/(м 3 в год) и 4 % от САРЕХ [22]. ...
THE PURPOSE. To analyze the current state and prospects for the hydrogen energy development. To consider the possibility of implementing a project aimed at producing hydrogen on the territory of the Republic of Crimea. To choose a suitable location for the facility construction. To provide for the use of renewable sources to supply consumers of the facility with electricity. To study the existing methods of obtaining hydrogen in order to select the suitable one for use on the territory of the Republic of Crimea. To calculate the amount of electricity generated by the selected source and consumed by the elements of the hydrogen production system. To determine the cost of the project and its payback period. METHODS. The method of calculating the amount of electricity generated by the source, as well as the method for determining the cost of project implementation and payback based on data from open sources were used to achieve the set goals. In this work, a simulation of a facility consisting from an electricity source – a solar power plant with an installed capacity of 110 MW, a hydrogen production system – an electrolyser with a capacity of 50 MW, a seawater desalination system – a reverse osmosis unit with a capacity of 600 tons of water per day was performed. Various types of electrolysers were analyzed. RESULTS. The balance of energy generated and consumed by the elements of the hydrogen production system was determined. The capital costs of implementation and the annual operating costs of the project were calculated. CONCLUSHION. The recoupment of such a project, according to preliminary estimates, will be from seven to eight years with a capital investment of about five billion rubles.
... It should be said that the costs of the units of water are higher than those produced by RO driven by electrical energy. A recent study indicated that using hybrid photovoltaic batteries and power-to-gas power plants to power RO units will be able to meet the global needs of 2030 at water cost costs ranging from 0.59 to 2.81 €/m 3 (Caldera et al. 2016). ...
... Furthermore, with respect to The Paris Agreement, a CSP-D plant could reduce emissions by > 300,000 t of equivalent CO 2 annually, compared to the conventional fossil-fuelled desalination plant (DEFRA 2005). Even though the technology readiness level of CSP-driven desalination technologies is still quite low, PV-RO systems are highly commercially adopted (Lamei et al. 2008;Caldera et al. 2016;Bilton et al. 2011;Childs et al. 1999;Shalaby 2017;Ali et al. 2018;Salcedo et al. 2012). ...
Due to current water stress, there is a problem with hygiene and sanitation in many parts of the world. According to predictions from the United Nations, more than 2.7 billion people will be challenged by water scarcity by the middle of the century. The water industry is increasingly interested in desalination of the sea, ocean, and brackish water. Desalination processes are widely classified as thermal or membrane technologies. In the Middle East, thermal desalination remains the primary technology of choice, but membrane processes, for example reverse osmosis (RO), have evolved rapidly and in many other parts of the world are currently even surpassing thermal processes. The purpose of this paper is to review the renewable energy source, the technology, desalination systems, and their possible integration with renewable energy resources and their cost. This article suggests that the most practical renewable desalination techniques to be used are the solar photovoltaic integrated RO desalination process, the hybrid solar photovoltaic-wind integrated RO desalination process, the hybrid solar photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) integrated RO desalination process, and the hybrid solar photovoltaic-thermal effect distillation (PVT-MED) desalination process. However, intensive research is still required to minimize the cost, reduce the heat loss, enhance the performance, and increase the productivity.
... There have been many studies, in which the reliability and feasibility of utilizing alternative energy sources (PV, Wind, geothermal, tidal, etc.) have been investigated [6] [7] [8] [9]. Energy from PV and Wind has been the most applied to power RO desalination plants [10] [11] [12] [13]. ...
... Therefore, the two processes should be integrated in an optimum way, i.e. to get continuous energy supply from an intermittent source for optimal results and this is a very big challenge. Usually to avoid this intermittent characteristic, the two processes are integrated together through a backup system such as a battery, flow/pressure stabilizer, flywheel system which can store or release energy as required [9] [18] [21]. Thomson et al postulated that batteries can cause issues, especially in hot weather conditions, which may cause loss of energy of up to 25% [22]. ...
... Considering the adequate potential of these resources in arid, semi-arid, and coastal areas with a severe water crisis, they can be utilized in power desalination processes. 7,8 The installation costs for both of these resources have experienced a considerable decline, which has led to an increase in the installed capacity as well as the energy produced from these sources. 9 Consequently, extensive studies have been conducted on applying these renewable resources to supply desalination plants. ...
... The balance between incoming and outgoing power must be considered in the system's main AC power supply bus, which is mathematically established in (6). In this regard, the input power supplied to the AC bus is equal to the power generated by the wind turbines, diesel generator, and the AC power output of the power converter in the inverter working mode, which is shown by (7). In contrast, the AC bus's output power is equal to the power required by the desalination unit and charging and discharging water pumps in addition to the power input to the power converter in the rectifier mode, as presented by (8). ...
Employing renewable resources, which act as an alternative energy source for desalination plants, has become one of the promising solutions for overcoming the water crisis. The various experimental, pilot, and research desalination projects powered by renewable resources have validated its practical feasibility in the past decade. An optimal planning scheme must be adopted to enhance these new resources' competitiveness in terms of cleanness, reliability, and affordability. Accordingly, this paper proposes a potable water production system based on water desalination. The desalination unit is supplied by a synergistic wind‐PV system integrated with an electrical energy storage system and a water tank. Also, a diesel generator is considered for power production during periods of critical power production and power/water storage. The resultant air pollution is modeled and controlled to ensure the system's cleanliness. The size of the desalination unit, water tank, associated pumps, and power supply components are optimized simultaneously to ensure a minimum‐cost plan. The proposed model exhibits linearity while preserving a predefined level of water supply reliability and a yearly emission cap. The model is implemented on a test case, and a comprehensive sensitivity analysis is performed to evaluate its effectiveness to obtain optimal results. This paper proposes a potable water production system based on water desalination. The desalination unit is supplied by a synergistic wind‐PV system integrated with an electrical energy storage system and a water tank. Also, a diesel generator is considered for power production during periods of critical power production and power/water storage. The resultant air pollution is modeled and controlled. The model exhibits linearity while preserving a predefined level of water supply reliability and a yearly emission cap.
... Water Desalination Plants Reverse osmosis (RO) plants are employed to desalinate seawater and produce freshwater [63]. This technology essentially pumps seawater into a chamber featuring a porous membrane and produces a pressure differential across the membrane, enabling dead-end filtration and the recovery of freshwater on the other side of the membrane. ...
... Water Storage Tanks Water is stored in tanks equipped with electric pumps [63]. Two input variables, one output variable and three internal variables are used. ...
This paper studies the economics of carbon-neutral synthetic fuel production from renewable electricity in remote areas where high-quality renewable resources are abundant. To this end, a graph-based optimisation modelling framework directly applicable to the strategic planning of remote renewable energy supply chains is proposed. More precisely, a graph abstraction of planning problems is introduced, wherein nodes can be viewed as optimisation subproblems with their own parameters, variables, constraints and local objective, and typically represent a subsystem such as a technology, a plant or a process. Edges, on the other hand, express the connectivity between subsystems. The framework is leveraged to study the economics of carbon-neutral synthetic methane production from solar and wind energy in North Africa and its delivery to Northwestern European markets. The full supply chain is modelled in an integrated fashion, which makes it possible to accurately capture the interaction between various technologies on hourly time scales. Results suggest that the cost of synthetic methane production and delivery would be slightly under 200 \euro/MWh and 150 \euro/MWh by 2030 for a system supplying 100 TWh (higher heating value) annually that relies on solar photovoltaic plants alone and a combination of solar photovoltaic and wind power plants, respectively, assuming a uniform weighted average cost of capital of 7\%. The cost difference between these system configurations mostly stems from higher investments in technologies providing flexibility required to balance the system in the solar-driven configuration. Synthetic methane costs would drop to roughly 124 \euro/MWh and 87 \euro/MWh, respectively, if financing costs were zero and only technology costs were taken into account. Prospects for cost reductions are also discussed, and options that would enable such reductions are reviewed.
... Research has shown that the cost of desalination can be minimized by using solar and wind energy as an energy supply ( Voutchkov, 2018 ). Desalination powered by renewable energies is attracting increased interest particularly for seawater and brackish groundwater desalination in remote areas, including in developing countries ( Subiela et al., 2012 ;Ali et al., 2018 ;Aminfard et al., 2019, Li, et al., 2019a, Li, et al., 2019b, Caldera et al., 2016. Solar energy is abundant in many of these countries and costs for photovoltaics (PV) have dropped significantly in recent years worldwide. ...
Various technologies are used for the treatment of arsenic (As) contaminated water, but only a few seem to be suitable for small-scale applications; these are mostly used in rural communities where the access to potable water is the most vulnerable. In this review paper, the salient advantages and most notable challenges of membrane-based technologies for the removal of arsenate As(V) and arsenite As(III) are evaluated and systematically compared to alternative technologies such as adsorption. A comparison of different scientific papers, case studies and pilot trials is used to discuss the most important aspects when evaluating As mitigation technologies, including the ability to comply with the stringent WHO drinking water guideline limit value of 10 µg/L As and the safe disposal of produced As-laden waste. The use of renewable energies such as solar power in small-scale (< 10 m³/day) membrane applications is evaluated. Finally, a conceptual approach for holistic As mitigation is proposed as an important approach to prevent exposure to As by providing a safe water supply.
... The World Water Program (WWP) hast estimated that by 2030 only 60% of water demanded will be available for consumption. Furthermore, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) predicted that by 2050, availability will be lowered up to 55% and by the end of the century, 40% of the world's population will live areas water stress regions [6]. ...
Thermal desalination is yet a reliable technology in the treatment of brackish water and seawater; however, its demanding high energy requirements have lagged it compared to other non-thermal technologies such as reverse osmosis. This review provides an outline of the development and trends of the three most commercially used thermal or phase change technologies worldwide: Multi Effect Distillation (MED), Multi Stage Flash (MSF), and Vapor Compression Distillation (VCD). First, state of water stress suffered by regions with little fresh water availability and existing desalination technologies that could become an alternative solution are shown. The most recent studies published for each commercial thermal technology are presented, focusing on optimizing the desalination process, improving efficiencies, and reducing energy demands. Then, an overview of the use of renewable energy and its potential for integration into both commercial and non-commercial desalination systems is shown. Finally, research trends and their orientation towards hy-bridization of technologies and use of renewable energies as a relevant alternative to the current problems of brackish water desalination are discussed. This reflective and updated review will help researchers to have a detailed state of the art of the subject and to have a starting point for their research, since current advances and trends on thermal desalination are shown.
... Moreover, they estimated areas of desalination water use rather than the geographical location of the desalination plants. Other global Caldera et al., 2016) and regional (Bremere et al., 2001;Fichtner GmbH, 2011;Kim et al., 2016;Ouda, 2014) studies have also addressed desalination water, but they were focused on predicting desalination water capacity or production rather than the prediction of the geographic locations of desalination plants. ...
Desalinized seawater is a vital freshwater source for regions with coastal water scarcity. Mapping seawater desalination plants enables a spatially detailed water resource assessment. Here, which is the first of its kind, we investigated the potential application of species distribution models (SDMs), which are widely used in ecology, to predict the global spatial distribution of seawater desalination plants. Two regression SDMs, a generalized linear model and a generalized additive model, along with two machine learning SDMs, a random forest model and a generalized boosted regression model , were trained and tested using the cross-validation method at 0.5 degrees. For each SDM, we considered four explanatory variables: aridity, distance to coastline, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, and annual domestic and industrial water withdrawal. Our results showed that machine learning SDMs had a relatively strong performance in capturing the historical locations of seawater desalination plants. We then mapped the future distribution of seawater desalination plants under different shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs) and representative concentration pathways (RCPs). Our predictions showed that the number of predicted locations of seawater desalination plants increased by 31%, 47%, 55%, 57% in 2030, 2050, 2070, and 2090, respectively, relative to 2014. The largest increase occurred under SSP3_RCP7.0, while the lowest increase was found under SSP1_RCP2.6, which is mainly determined by the differences in the volume of annual domestic and industrial water withdrawal. Our study provides an insight into how SDMs can be used to predict the geographic locations of water management facilities.
... The global estimation by Caldera has claimed that it is possible to fulfill the water global demand with SWRO desalination plants solely powered by solar/wind hybrid system. [215] To satisfy the power demand of small-scale SWRO plant in Bozcaada Island, Turkey, Gokcek, proposed a hybrid power system consists of 20 kW PV panel, 10 kW-rated wind turbine, diesel generator, and lead-acid battery in which the electricity and water cost was estimated as $0.308 kWh À1 and $2.20 m À3 , respectively. [216] The technoeconomic optimization based on the 300 m 3 day À1 SWRO plant in Matrouh city, Egypt, suggested that the hybrid system consists of 186 kW PV panel, 8800 kW wind turbines, and 350 kW diesel generator equipped with battery and converter could lower the cost of energy to 0.282 $kW h À1 . ...
With the change in climate patterns, rapid industrialization and population growth, the increasing water and energy demand becomes the major concern in the last decades. Desalination has been touted as the answer to global water crisis, owing to its capability in producing high quality fresh water from saline water. The continual research and innovations in desalination field have resulted in the commercialization of large‐scale desalination in many water scares regions. In the energetic context, all desalination processes are energy intensive. With the necessity to make desalination a more affordable and sustainable process, the energy efficiency of desalination is becoming an important topic. This review aims to provide insights into the recent efforts and strategies established to tackle the energy‐related issues of both thermal‐based and membrane‐based desalination processes. Depending on the principle of various commercial and emerging desalination processes, the directions of energy efficiency improvements, which include operating condition optimization, high performance material development and renewable energy exploitation are discussed. The ideas and strategies reviewed in this article, whether in their implementation or theoretical stage, are expected to provide insights into the possible improvement for application in commercial desalination plants.
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... Input data for the optimization program[12,27,[64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73] Fig. 8 Convergence performance of the particle swarm optimization technique ...
Saudi Arabia tries to build local desalination water stations to supply water to remote areas. Due to the low cost and energy requirements of reverse osmosis (RO) desalination technology, it has been used to supply fresh water to Arar City in the northeast of Saudi Arabia. In this paper, it is proposed to provide an average of 1000 cubic meters of water per day by using autonomous hybrid renewable energy system (RES). This proposed system contains wind turbines (WTs), photovoltaic (PV), battery, and it is designed to feed the RO system with the energy adequate to produce the required amount of fresh water for the minimum cost and minimum loss of supply probability. The proposed system was designed to generate 2440 kW power to produce this amount of water. Matching study between the site and the best WT among 10 market-available WTs is introduced. Three optimization strategies were used and compared for the design of the proposed system to ensure that no premature convergence can occur. These strategies consisted of two well-known techniques, particle swarm optimization and bat algorithm (BA), and a relatively new technique: social mimic optimization. The simulation results obtained from the proposed system showed the superiority of using a RES for feeding a RO desalination power plant in Arar City, and they also showed that the BA is the fastest and most accurate optimization technique to perform this design problem compared with the other two optimization techniques. This detailed analysis shows that the cost of production of fresh water is $0.745/m3.
... Solar desalination systems' efficiency depends on their design, and climatic conditions. In some cases, concentrated solar power may be used for distillation or photovoltaic plants could be used for the membrane desalination systems [7]. Small desalination systems can be integrated with wind energy converters, to supply required energy to desalination units. ...
Decreasing the freshwater prices is considered a big concern within the desalination industry. The goal of this study is to determine the best reverse osmosis desalination system powered by photovoltaic or wind turbine in Ras-Gharib City, Egypt. The system is planned to produce 0.5 m3//hr of potable water. The techno-economic analysis is applied using SAM 2018.11.11 r4 simulation package. The results show that electricity bill using solar or wind energy is less than that in case of using convention energy systems. Based on simulation findings, the proposed photovoltaic system capacity is capable of generating water at a levelized energy cost of 3.95 cent$/kWh, compared to 9.5 cent$/kWh for wind system. The cost of one meter cubic of purified water using solar photovoltaic system is 0.08 $ while the cost is 0.19 $ using wind turbine system. Here, solar photovoltaic desalination system is the best choice system for this case study.
... The World Water Program (WWP) estimates that by 2030 only 60% of water demanded will be available. On the other hand, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has predicted that by 2050, availability will be reduced to 55% and by the end of the century, 40% of the world's population will live in areas with water stress [6]. ...
Thermal desalination is yet a reliable technology in the treatment of brackish water and seawater; however, its demanding high energy requirements have lagged it compared to other non-thermal technologies such as reverse osmosis. This review provides an outline of the development and trends of the three most commercially used thermal or phase change technologies worldwide: Multi Effect Distillation (MED), Multi Stage Flash (MSF), and Vapor Compression Distillation (VCD). First, state of water stress suffered by regions with little fresh water availability and existing desalination technologies that could become an alternative solution are shown. The most recent studies published for each commercial thermal technology are presented, focusing on optimizing the desalination process, improving efficiencies, and reducing energy demands. Then, an overview of the use of renewable energy and its potential for integration into both commercial and non-commercial desalination systems is shown. Finally, research trends and their orientation towards hybridization of technologies and use of renewable energies as a relevant alternative to the current problems of brackish water desalination are discussed. This reflective and updated review will help researchers to have a detailed state of the art of the subject and to have a starting point for their research, since current advances and trends on thermal desalination are shown.
... RO membranes can remove even the smallest entity (like monovalent ions, dissolved organic content, etc.) from the water, which other membranes are not capable of removing. Among the various applications of RO, like in wastewater treatment, food, and dairy industry, desalination is the most important aspect of the RO membrane for which it is widely used (Shenvi et al. 2015;Caldera et al. 2016). ...
Over the last few decades, the effectiveness of the conventional water treatment processes has become limited due to its failure to meet stringent water quality regulations, the emergence of non-conventional contaminants, and space limitations. Membrane technology can serve as a viable option to meet the limitations of the conventional treatment processes due to low chemical use, higher efficiency, easy operation, smaller footprint, and better quality treatment. But its effective usage is hindered due to fouling, shorter life span, and selectivity–permeability trade-off. Thus, there is a need for new-generation membranes that can surpass the limitations of the conventional membrane technologies, with less or no decrement in the efficiency of the treatment. With the advancements in material sciences and membrane fabrication processes, it could be possible to overcome the problems of conventional membrane treatment processes. In this chapter, a brief introduction of the membrane technology, its advantages over conventional treatment processes, commonly used pressure-driven membranes and membrane fabrication processes, the problems of conventional membranes, and some of the promising new-generation membrane materials and membrane systems, and water and wastewater treatment have been discussed.
... RO membranes can remove even the smallest entity (like monovalent ions, dissolved organic content, etc.) from the water, which other membranes are not capable of removing. Among the various applications of RO, like in wastewater treatment, food, and dairy industry, desalination is the most important aspect of the RO membrane for which it is widely used (Shenvi et al. 2015;Caldera et al. 2016 ...
Arsenic is a crystalline metalloid present in the earth’s crust in different minerals. Various natural processes and human interventions have mobilized As into the groundwater system over the years. The dissolved As presence in drinking water is now a significant health concern in India and many other countries. As is a proven carcinogen, and long-term ingestion of low concentrations of As can lead to serious health issues. As in drinking water was first regulated by the United States Public Health Service (USPHS), which set a maximum permissible concentration (MPC) of 50 μg/L. Later, based on lung and bladder cancer risk, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) promulgated a maximum contaminant level (MCL) of 10 μg/L. Indian standard for drinking water also recommends a total As concentration of 10 μg/L as the acceptable limit. However, some of the developed countries have As standards lower than 10 μg/L as well. The removal of As in drinking water is inevitable, considering its widespread presence in groundwater, potential human toxicity, and stringent regulation in drinking water. Several point-of-use (PoU) and community-based treatment technologies have been developed to provide As-free water to the affected population. The processes adopted in these technologies include coagulation and filtration, sorptive filtration, ion-exchange, electrocoagulation, and membrane filtration. The present chapter reviews these technologies critically and their suitability in the Indian context. The chapter also provides insight into the As occurrence in the environment, its speciation, toxicity, and health effects.
... year. The water stress we refer to is explained in more detail in Caldera et al. 95 . The total water demand is the sum of the projected demand from the municipal, industrial and agricultural sectors. ...
Powerfuels – i. e. green hydrogen and derived gaseous and liquid energy carriers and feedstocks such as synthetic kerosene, methane or ammonia – will play an important role in a carbon-neutral energy system. They will be essential for defossilising sectors
that are hard to electrify such as aviation, maritime transport, and specific industrial processes. In addition, they will play an important role in replacing fossil resources employed as process feedstocks. Furthermore, even in sectors with high electrification shares, there will be numerous applications relying on gaseous or liquid energy carriers. Here too, renewable liquid and gaseous energy carriers such as powerfuels
will be essential for their defossilisation.
... In many articles, the production of freshwater by a RO unit along with a power generation cycle has been investigated. For example, Caldera et al. [33] demonstrated how sea water reverse osmosis plants could be powered just by renewable energy. Their results showed that for some regions with high water demand, the levelized cost of water (LCOW), which includes water production, electricity, water transport, and water storage costs, is expected to be within the range of 0.59 euros/m 3 to 2.81 euros/m 3 by 2030. ...
In this paper, the simultaneous production of power and freshwater by the integration of a gas turbine (GT), a supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO2) cycle, an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) and a reverse osmosis (RO) desalination unit is proposed. The S-CO2 and the ORC are bottoming cycles that recover the waste heat from the exhaust gases of the GT. A RO seawater desalination unit has been added to this power generation cycle to produce low-cost freshwater. The thermodynamic modelling and the simulation of the integrated cycle are performed. In addition, exergetic, exergoeconomic and exergoenvironmental analyses have been carried out. Cyclopentane has been chosen as working fluid of the ORC. The results show that the total energy generated by the cycles is about 75.1 MW; the compressors and pumps consume 44% and the rest is sent to the electricity grid. The integration of the S-CO2 cycle with the gas turbine increases the total efficiency by 10.9%. Also, the addition of the ORC to this integration, improves the efficiency by about 2%. The cost of power generation in the gas turbine is about 0.604 $/s, in the turbine of the S-CO2 cycle about 0.182 $/s and in the turbine of ORC cycle about 0.036 $/s. The cost of freshwater production in the RO unit with 5 MW of power consumption is 0.88 $/m³. The results show that the proposed combined GT/S-CO2/ORC/RO regenerative system is promising in terms of waste heat recovery from gas turbines. As advantages, deep waste heat recovery, high exergetic efficiency, and low power and freshwater costs have been achieved.
... The global potable water supplies have encountered serious problems due to climatic changes, rapid population growth, and industrialization (Caldera, Bogdanov, and Breyer 2016;Sahin et al. 2016;Stikker 1998). Persistent water pollution and growing financial systems are driving governors and companies to take into consideration the desalination as an approach to provide potable water (Schorr 2011). ...
The daily productivity of two solar stills (SSs) was investigated experimentally and numerically. Two modifications were done to increase the daily productivity of the conventional SS which include the embedment of mirrors on two side walls and perforated-suspended plate (SP) with various depths. The perforated-SP was placed inside the basin water with different bed depths. The left and right sides were fabricated in double glass with a gap distance to avoid more heat losses from the side walls and simultaneously to place a mirror according to the daytime. The theoretical model was solved numerically by utilizing the fourth-order Runge–Kutta method and the program was written by FORTRAN. The experimental results of conventional SS were verified by the numerical method. The maximum productivity was obtained 4.24 kg/m2/day where the mirror was placed in sides and the suspend plate was placed at 0.7 cm in the basin water with a depth of 2.6 cm. The daily productivity was increased by 43% compared to the conventional type. In addition, the thermal efficiency of SS increased 28% in comparison to the conventional SS. The results of the experimental study illustrate that utilizing mirror in sides and suspend plate on the basin water has obvious enhancement in the daily productivity.
... Caldera et al. suggests that RO unit powered with hybrid PV-wind-battery and power-to-gas power plants are able to fulfill the global water demand of 2030 at levelized water cost of 0.59-2.81 e/m 3 [463]. ...
... For instance, Kershman et al. [73] economically compared RO system powered by grid and PV + WEC and found that using the hybrid system based on the renewable energies caused increment in levelized water cost by up to 45%; however, up to 80% reduction in annual grid consumption was achievable. The cost of water in cases of utilization of hybrid systems is influenced by several elements [74]. As an example, Kershman et al. [75] in 2002 economically compared the performance of a small scale RO system in cases of using Wind Energy Conversion (WEC) + Grid/RO, Grid + PV/RO and fossil only working of the plant from the grid. ...
Desalination has gained significant importance in recent decades especially in arid regions such as MENA. There are different technologies for desalination such as thermal, electro-dialysis and Reverse Osmosis (RO); however, RO is currently among the most attractive and widely used technology. Utilizing renewable energy systems for supplying the required power of RO or electrodialysis desalinations is beneficial in terms of environmental and applicability for remote areas, and has attracted attention in recent decades. In the present review article, studies on the desalination systems utilizing wind energy are reviewed. According to the findings, it can be concluded that wind turbines can be considered to supply the required power of desalinations in a clean and efficient way. In addition, by applying hybrid systems composed of wind turbines, the reliability of the systems can be improved and the issues related to the intermittent nature of wind could be resolved. Cost effectiveness of hybrid energy systems is dependent on the configuration of the systems and case studies. Lastly, several recommendations are advised for the upcoming studies in the relevant fields of science. Ó 2022 THE AUTHORS. Published by Elsevier BV on behalf of Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
... It was demonstrated how saltwater reverse osmosis (SWRO) plants, required to meet growing future global water demand. Also he provided a global estimation of the water production costs for 2030 distillation demand with renewable electricity [6]. A paper presented a state of art in wind and solar-PV powered large scale RO plants. ...
A case study of designing of a reverse osmosis (RO) desalination plant using a Solar Photovoltaic (PV) system is investigated in this work. The RO system is a desalination plant providing pure water to the Shoiaba power generation plant. The system consists of a PV array connected to an inverter for day time or batteries for night time. The PV is designed to meet the high-pressure pumps’ load that is about 13649 kWh a day. Because the plant is operated 24 hours a day the PV panels are divided into two parts, one to cover the day time load and the second to cover night load that is stored in batteries. Based on weather conditions of solar radiation of the shortest day and maximum ambient temperature the PV is sizing and a storage system is determined. The system is modeled by the TNSYS software to simulate the performance of the system during the year. The annual performance of system proves that the system is able to meet the required load during the year. It can be concluded that it is a great opportunity to install photovoltaic panels and increase the efficiency of Reverse Osmosis Desalination Plant.
... Saltwater intrusion alters carbon fixation and mineralization, potentially resulting in a rise in the concentration of ions (Luo et al., 2017;Neubauer et al., 2013). Osmotic pressure occurs as a result of the shift in the concentration of ions, and as a result of the microbial reduction, the sulphate ion (SO 4 2− ) creates H 2 S, which is harmful to freshwater species and decreases methane production (Caldera et al., 2016). ...
Groundwater is considered as the primary source of water for the majority of the world's population. The preponderance of the nation's drinking water, as well as agricultural and industrial water, comes from groundwater. Groundwater level is becoming increasingly challenging to replenish due to climate change. Fertilizer application and improper processing of industrial waste are the two major anthropogenic drivers of groundwater pollution. Arsenic and cadmium are two of the principal heavy metal pollutants that have affected groundwater quality by human activity. When people are exposed to both non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic contaminants for an extended period, toxic effects might occur. It can have detrimental health effects from long-term exposure to contaminants, even in low amounts. As a result, metal contamination concentrations and fractions can be used to determine potential health concerns. At the same time, contaminants also need to be removed or converted to harmless products by groundwater remediation. Remediation of groundwater quality can be accomplished in several ways, including natural and artificial means. The purpose of this review is to explore a wide range of factors that affect groundwater quality, including their possible health effects. This communication provides state-of-the-art information about remediation approaches for groundwater contamination including hindrances and perspectives in this area of research. The in-depth information provided in different sections of this communication would expand the scope of interdisciplinary research.
... One of the biggest challenges of desalination plants and climate change is the increases in evaporation of water given rise to a higher salinity of the water thus higher treatment costs (Elimelech & Phillip, 2011). Innovations in solar energy for desalination can reduce the carbon footprint of the process (Caldera et al., 2016;Elimelech & Phillip, 2011). ...
Climate change is affecting the availability, distribution, and quality of water around the world. The impacts of climate change are not happening in a vacuum, but rather, are layered onto and exacerbate pre-existing inequalities and injustices. In this chapter, we argue that water justice and climate change are intertwined in three critical ways. First, we argue that water injustice creates climate change vulnerability and climate change entrenches water injustices. Therefore addressing water injustices will also reduce climate change vulnerability. Second, we argue that the proposed solutions to climate change can and will have implications for water justice. In some cases, mitigation and adaptation solutions will create or deepen existing water injustices while other solutions may represent a space for positive action. We examine six examples of how responses to climate change are poised to affect water justice: lithium mining, REDD+/Payment of Ecosystem Services, hydropower dams, rural to urban water transfers, desalination, and adaptive management. Third, water justice and climate justice struggles can and should build greater unity. By building unity (not uniformity) between water justice and climate justice struggles, movements could gain better insight into the local-global connections that exist between water injustice and climate injustice. Importantly, we also caution scholars against viewing climate change as the driver of water injustice. Climate change, as a discourse, can naturalize water scarcity and obscure the power and politics that drive water injustice. By exploring these important intersections between climate change and water justice, we argue that water justice and climate justice struggles and scholarship would benefit considerably from one another.
... One of the biggest challenges of desalination plants and climate change is the increases in evaporation of water given rise to a higher salinity of the water thus higher treatment costs (Elimelech & Phillip, 2011). Innovations in solar energy for desalination can reduce the carbon footprint of the process (Caldera et al., 2016;Elimelech & Phillip, 2011). ...
Through the efforts shared in this chapter, we embrace the hypothesis that local representations of our changing climate offer a key angle for facing climate change. We describe the coconstruction processes of climate services in five sites across Europe: Bergen (Norway), Brest, Kerourien (France), Dordrecht (the Netherlands), Gulf of Morbihan (France), and Jade Bay (Germany), to share novel ways of transforming state-of-the-art climate science into action-oriented place-based climate services that can be integrated with social understandings and practices of coping with change in Europe. The formal context for “modes of representation” enabled us to recognize the importance of explicitly linking social transformation intentions with local challenges and values, and to connect from there with national and European Framework Directives related to climate services. We reiterate the importance of having local stakeholders engage in the climate services coproduction process in order to forge common commitments and incorporate value perspectives, even those that may be polarized, throughout society as a whole.
... The desalination demand is estimated for regions with water stress greater than 40% and is a function of the water stress and total water demand for a specific year. The water stress referred to is explained in more detail in Caldera et al. [40]. The total water demand is the sum of the projected demand from the municipal, industrial and agricultural sectors. ...
The transition away from fossil fuels towards renewable energy is critical in preventing perilous climate change, and cities around the world have a significant role in enabling this transition. Cities are innately centres of human, economic and intellectual capital, also contributing to the growing energy demand around the world. This research is a first of its kind to explore the technical feasibility and economic viability of 100% renewable energy systems including power, heat, transport and desalination sectors for a global megacity like Delhi within the North Indian grid region. It presents a technology-rich, multi-sectoral, multi-regional and cost-optimal energy transition pathway for Delhi, which is a hub within the regional energy system. The results of this research indicate that a megacity such as Delhi can benefit and drive a regional energy transition, with reduction in primary energy of over 40%, reduction in energy costs by over 25%, reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution and associated health costs. While creating more than three times the number of direct energy jobs as of today across North India and Delhi. With the case of Delhi within the North Indian grid, this research provides snapshots of the current and future energy landscapes and discusses several aspects of an energy transition pathway that could lead to an affordable, efficient, sustainable and secure energy future for megacities around the world.
... Renewable energy sources can be used for desalination in direct and indirect ways. In direct approaches, thermal energy is mainly used for water evaporation and reducing the salinity of water, while renewable energies can be used for indirect desalination by producing electricity and applying the power in reverse osmosis (RO) technologies (Caldera et al., 2016). Among the renewable energy sources, solar energy is attractive for the desalination purpose since it can be used in different ways such as thermal technologies or photovoltaic/RO systems. ...
Renewable energy sources have been used for desalination by employing different technologies and mediums due to the limitations of fossil fuels and the environmental issues related to their consumption. Solar energy is one of the most applicable types of renewable sources for desalination in both direct and indirect ways. The performance of solar desalination is under effects of different factors which makes their performance prediction difficult in some cases. In this regard, data-driven methods such as artificial neural networks (ANNs) would be proper tools for their modeling and output forecasting. In the present article, a comprehensive review is provided on the applications of different data-driven approaches in performance modeling of solar-based desalination units. It can be concluded that by employing these methods with proper inputs and structures, the outputs of the solar desalination units can be reliably and accurately forecasted. In addition, several recommendations are produced for the upcoming work in the relevant areas of the study.
... In the literature, recently much effort has been dedicated to developing and enhancing systems for hybrid reverse osmosis (RO) desalination that use various energy technologies from solar Photovoltaic, Solar Thermal, wind, geothermal, grid connection diesel, battery power or other sources. However, we present some studies of energy systems modeling such as wind energy (Miranda & Infield, 2003;Dehmas et al., 2011), Photovoltaic energy systems (Georgiou et al., 2015 ;Ahmad et al., 2015;Esfahani & Yoo, 2016), Photovoltaic/wind (Cherif & Belhadj, 2011), wind/battery (Bourouni et al., 2011;Caldera et al., 2016;Cabrera et al., 2018), Photovoltaic/battery (Clarke et al. 2015 ;Monnot et al., 2018;Mostafaeipour et al., 2019), wind/Photovoltaic/battery (Koutroulis & Kolokotsa, 2010;Zhang et al., 2018), Photovoltaic /diesel (Bilton et al., 2011;), wind/Photovoltaic/diesel (Setiawan et al., 2009;Novosel et al., 2015;Lai et al., 2016), Photovoltaic/diesel/battery , wind/Photovoltaic/diesel/battery (Gökçek, 2018;Padrón et al., 2019), wind/Grid (Kershman, 2003), Photovoltaic/Grid (Voivontas et al., 2001;Jones et al., 2016) and Photovoltaic/wind/Grid/diesel . Table 10 shows a brief summary of the studies published for optimization energy system in desalination plants. ...
Hybrid energy systems (HESs) are an excellent solution for electrification of remote rural areas where the grid extension is difficult or not economical. Usually, HES generally integrate one or several renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, hydropower, and geothermal with fossil fuel powered diesel/petrol generator to provide electric power where the electricity is either fed directly into the grid or to batteries for energy storage. This chapter presents a review on the solution approaches for determining the HES systems based on various objective functions (e.g. economic, social, technical, environmental and health impact). In order to take account of environmental and health impacts from energy systems, several energy optimization model was developed for minimizing pollution and maximizing the production of renewable energy.
... It is important to note that the DAC deployment will highly depend on water availability in water stress regions that will result in higher costs by using water desalination together with transportation costs, e.g., $3 -$9 per cubic meters (Caldera, et al., 2016). According to Keith et al. (2018), the Carbon Engineering design may require about 4.7 tons of water to capture 1 ton of CO2. ...
In view of the magnitude of assumed future deployment of Negative Emission Technologies (NETs), technical, socio-political and economic challenges will arise and may impose serious constraints. Analysis of the readiness, feasibility and realistic potential of NETs is therefore key for improving the understanding of a realistic potential for their implementation.
The current report builds on previous work in which an assessment of the major classes of NETs was carried out , including (i) bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS); (ii) direct air capture and storage (DACCS); (iii) large-scale afforestation and reforestation; (iv) soil carbon sequestration; (v) Biochar as soil additive; (vi) Enhanced Weathering; (vii) Accelerated Mineralization; (viii) Ocean fertilization and priority NETs were selected for further analysis on the basis of a number of performance indicators. A comprehensive literature review was carried out in accordance with the broad NET categories identified as outlined above resulting in a substantial amount of data on all identified NET categories. On the basis of a qualitative assessment, Accelerated Mineralization (AM), BECCS; Biochar as soil additive; DACCS; and Wetland Restoration (WR) were shortlisted for further analysis.
This report presents an in-depth technology readiness and cost assessment and an analysis of practical deployment barriers for the selected NETs along with an analysis of related knowledge gaps and research needs. The report is divided into sections in accordance with the selected NETs and concluded with a summary and conclusions.
... The average production totals over the last two years in the two studied DPs were used as the fixed annual production (AP) values. The cost of spare parts was set at 4% of the capital recovery of each plant (Caldera et al., 2016). In addition, it was assumed that each plant will be operating for 30 years with 6.67% compounded annually (E. . ...
Although seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination is mainstream worldwide, the performance of SWRO in some arid states faces some challenges. Two SWRO desalination plants (DPs) in Kuwait have reduced their operations and consume additional energy and chemicals compared to the average SWRO DPs. The objective of this study is to evaluate two local SWRO DPs environmentally using life cycle assessments and economically using the levelized cost of water method. In addition, this paper conducts hypothesis tests and regression analyses to investigate the relationships among different seawater parameters, salinity and turbidity, and the environmental and economic impacts of SWRO desalination. The results indicate that the environmental impact for SWRO DPs in Kuwait is approximately 40% higher than that in another international study of comparable parameters. The economic analysis showed that the SWRO desalination unit cost is $1.36/m³ on average, compared to the world average unit cost of $0.5–0.66/m³. Finally, the regression analysis reveals the significant contribution of turbidity to the consumption of ferric chloride and sulfuric acid. However, both turbidity and conductivity had significant effects on anti-scalant consumption. The environmental and economic feasibility of a SWRO DP is highly dependent on the plant’s location.
... In this perspective, desalination plants offer an economically viable solution for the production of drinking water. Starting from 326 m 3 /day produced worldwide in 1945, the use of this technology based on membrane systems has increased exponentially to over 80 million m 3 /day in 2013 [2,3] and even more today. Moreover, thanks to their versatility, membranes have also found increasing use in other processes related to the food, medical and chemical sectors and more generally in the treatment of wastewater from industrial plants [4][5][6]. ...
Flux reduction induced by fouling is arguably the most adverse phenomenon in membrane-based separation systems. In this respect, many laboratory-scale filtration studies have shown that an appropriate use of hydrodynamic perturbations can improve both performance and durability of the membrane; however, to fully understand and hence appropriately exploit such effects, it is necessary to understand the underpinning flow processes. Towards this end, in this work we propose and validate a new module-scale laboratory facility with the aim of investigating, at very well-controlled flow conditions, how hydrodynamics affects mass transport phenomena at the feed/membrane interface. The proposed facility was designed to obtain a fully developed and uniform flow inside the test section and to impose both steady and pulsating flow conditions. The walls of the facility were made transparent to grant optical accessibility to the flow. In this paper, we discuss data coming from particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements and preliminary ultrafiltration tests both under steady and pulsating flow conditions. PIV data indicate that the proposed facility allows for excellent flow control from a purely hydrodynamic standpoint. Results from filtration tests provide promising results pointing towards pulsating flows as a viable technique to reduce fouling in membrane systems.
Water is important for human existence. Developing countries are challenged with the need and expense of clean water. Developing countries are located in areas of the world with the largest growing human population. This gives rise for more efficient and realistic future planning for urban living. The above concerns with respect to developing countries are further challenged by climate change and its impact on clean water availability and urban water supplies. The three pillars of sustainability are environmental, social, and economic and are very much embedded in urban water issues and developing countries. This chapter will discuss urbanization in developing countries involving urban cities, peri-urban, and slums in relation to water supplies and challenges due to climate change. Water sourcing challenges will be discussed including water demands, water scarcity, and pollution concerns. Waste management in correlation with source water availability will be addressed. Centralized and noncentralized approaches for drinking water supplies will be outlined. Infrastructure challenges including maintenance and robustness to climate change will be outlined. Other areas such as water harvesting, water storage, and innovative means of obtaining portable water will be outlined including desalination, water recycling, and fog traps. Mitigation and adaptation approaches for managing water sources and urban water supplies due to the impacts of climate change including droughts and floods, land disturbances and extreme weather events. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) addressing climate change and water presently and into the future are also discussed. Bottom up and green roots strategies for water resource management in line with climate change including the role of education and citizen science will be outlined in this chapter. Nurturing the benefits from climate change and encouraging more awareness of conservation and preservation will be discussed. The human right to water in developing urban community will benefit from the findings of this review chapter.
Quantifying uncertainty over technologies, costs, and prices that stem from site-specific conditions, technological particularities and future projections is an important element in the investment appraisal of desalination facilities. Yet, the majority of economic assessments in the field of desalination plants, so far, use deterministic estimation methods based on ‘best guess’ estimates and ceteris paribus sensitivity analyses. Aiming to fill this gap, this paper introduces a new approach towards comparing alternative technological options for desalination facilities under uncertainty based on the Levelized Cost of Water (LCOW). The proposed framework combines Monte Carlo simulations with scenario analysis and random walk-based models to account for the cone of uncertainty of the LCOW. For purely illustrative purposes, five alternative combinations of desalination technologies and energy sources are examined in the State of Kuwait. The findings show that the proposed framework, although it cannot eliminate uncertainty, can assist decision-makers in managing it by framing the range of possible outcomes of the LCOW. In this way, it offers an insight into the accuracy of the estimates and allows to validate the impact of risks and uncertainties against the acceptable tolerance level. Yet, several issues need to be addressed in future research.
This work presents an approach to using a low-grade thermal energy source to power seawater desalination at high performance ratios and with minimal complexity - important requirements for a system that can generate potable water off the grid. In the proposed process - called heat-driven direct reverse osmosis (HDRO) - heat is transferred to a piston containing a saturated working fluid, which in turn directly applies pressure to a feed water reservoir connected in series with a standard reverse osmosis membrane assembly. Presented here are the underlying operating principles and thermodynamics for a generalized HDRO device, including criteria for selecting a working fluid and the definition of several key performance metrics. An idealized HDRO device is analyzed and a theoretical upper bound on performance is computed. At low recovery ratios, a lossless device using ethanol as a working fluid can achieve a performance ratio of up to 49, with a first-law efficiency 5.7%, indicating the significant potential for using this approach for small-scale, thermally driven desalination.
Pakistan is reported to be one of the top ten, most water stressed, countries in the world. In this research, the potential to use renewable energy-based seawater desalination and improved irrigation systems to overcome the water stress in Pakistan is evaluated. It was observed that increasing the country's overall irrigation efficiency to 90% by 2050, results in a 54% and 80% reduction in total water and desalination demand, respective to a business as usual scenario. In a moderate scenario, where the maximum increase in irrigation efficiency is 1% per year, the 2050 total water and desalination demand are reduced by 21% and 40% respectively. The projected desalination demand growth, across the three scenarios, can be powered solely by renewables by 2050, at an average cost of water production of 0.6 €/m³. This includes the cost of water transportation in Pakistan and is reported to be an attractive water cost for farmers. Solar photovoltaics and battery storage drive the low cost electricity generation production in Pakistan. Thus, the results show how Pakistan can use improved irrigation efficiency systems and the low cost renewable electricity to achieve water security for the country.
Hydrogen presents an opportunity for Africa to not only decarbonise its own energy use and enable clean energy access for all, but also to export renewable energy. This paper developed a framework for assessing renewable resources for hydrogen production and provides a new critical analysis as to how and what role hydrogen can play in the complex African energy landscape. The regional solar, wind, CSP, and bio hydrogen potential ranges from 366 to 1311 Gt/year, 162 to 1782 Gt/year, 463 to 2738 Gt/year, and 0.03 to 0.06 Gt/year respectively. The water availability and sensitivity results showed that the water shortages in some countries can be abated by importing water from regions with high renewable water resources. A techno-economic comparative analysis indicated that a high voltage direct current (HVDC) system presents the most cost-effective transportation system with overall costs per kg hydrogen of 0.038 $/kg, followed by water pipeline with 0.084 $/kg, seawater desalination 0.1 $/kg, liquified hydrogen tank truck 0.12 $/kg, compressed hydrogen pipeline 0.16 $/kg, liquefied ammonia pipeline 0.38 $/kg, liquefied ammonia tank truck 0.60 $/kg, and compressed hydrogen tank truck with 0.77 $/kg. The results quantified the significance of economies of scale due to cost effectiveness of systems such as compressed hydrogen pipeline and liquefied hydrogen tank truck systems when hydrogen production is scaled up. Decentralization is favorable under some constraints, e.g., compressed hydrogen and liquefied ammonia tank truck systems will be more cost effective below 800 km and 1400 km due to lower investment and operation costs.
A sustainable energy supply is essential for a country’s stability and wellbeing. Seychelles, like many Small Island Developing States (SIDS), currently depends on imported energy, in the form of fossil fuels. To limit this dependence, it is aiming to increase its reliance on renewable energy to 15 percent by 2030, with a long-term ambition of using 100 percent renewable sources. Despite favourable conditions for renewable energy resources, such as wind and solar, very little has been tapped so far. The high dependence on fossil fuel imports means Seychelles is highly vulnerable to disruptions in global markets. The situation is exacerbated by a reliance on imported food, which accounts for about 70 percent of food consumption. The vulnerability and the risk for Seychelles to global shocks cannot be underestimated (National Report, 2012). Sustainable bioenergy is one form of renewable energy that can be used to green a country’s energy mix. This Sustainable Bioenergy Assessment report for Seychelles assesses the potential for sustainable bioenergy within the country, a means to help protect the country from global shocks, and to provide alternative sources of energy. The report considers sustainable biomass sources from the agriculture, forestry and waste sectors. Managed sustainably, bioenergy can provide multiple benefits in parallel to energy provision. These include jobs, agricultural and renewable energy investment and waste management. However, sustainable bioenergy development remains a complex topic due to the vast breadth of biomass options that can be sourced, the variety of technologies available, and the final economic and financial viability of the systems. The assessment was conducted following the Bioenergy and Food Security (BEFS) Approach of FAO (FAO, 2014b), and looked at different available bioenergy pathways. Within the report, the different forms of biomass, their availability and advantages, are assessed. Livestock, crop and forestry residues, and the green portion of waste, otherwise destined for landfill, are among the sources considered for the production of bioenergy. These biomass types are then assessed from a technical and economic viewpoint, under different market scenarios, for the production of energy. The most viable form of bioenergy production is presented, alongside estimates of the production costs, the investment requirements and the related GHG savings. The assessment shows that electricity generation, through biogas conversion, is the most promising pathway under the Seychellois’ context. The analysis also indicates that waste-to-energy technologies can be potentially profitable in Seychelles while reducing the amount of waste sent to landfills and turning biomass residues into valuable sources for electricity generation. This approach will also bring benefits in terms of GHG emission savings and reduction on the fossil fuel dependence for electricity generation on the island. As a first step in developing a waste to energy production pathway that uses the green portions of landfill waste it would be necessary to establish a collection value chain for the waste to be used. The local waste management company could be a key partner in this. Once the value chain for green waste is established, it will be possible to alsoinclude the collection of cattle manure and kitchen wastes, to reach the estimated electricity generation potential.
Economic and environmental factors play a crucial role in the transitioning of water desalination technologies from conventional energy sources to alternative sources, solar energy being in the forefront. This paper investigates the technical and economic merits of using three different types of powering systems: the National Electric Grid (Grid), a Standalone (Off-Grid) Photovoltaic (PV) System, and a Grid Connected (On-Grid) PV System to power a 100 m³/day reverse osmosis seawater desalination plant in the Mediterranean city of Tripoli-Libya. The cost analysis of product water showed significant savings in favour of On-Grid PV as a power source. Also, in this paper, the effect of interest rate on the cost of the water produced was studied. An additional finding of this paper was the impact of Off-Grid PV system oversizing to account for times of low solar irradiance on the level of utilization of the total electricity produced.
de Deutschland wird wahrscheinlich seinen zukünftigen Bedarf an regenerativem Strom nicht selbst decken können. Der Stromtransport aus Gegenden mit großem Erzeugungspotenzial für regenerativen Strom ist sehr teuer. Der Transport von e‐Fuels, wie Methanol, Benzin, Diesel oder Wasserstoff, ist hingegen billig, weil bis hin zu den Tankstellen auf eine bestehende Infrastruktur zurückgegriffen werden kann und der Transport von Flüssigkeiten über weite Strecken wesentlich kostengünstiger ist als der Transport von Strom. Bezieht man diese Randbedingungen in eine auf Prozesssimulationen basierende Kostenrechnung mit ein, ergeben sich für e‐Fuels, die in windreichen Gegenden Chiles erzeugt und an die deutschen Tankstellen geliefert werden, geringere spezifische Energiekosten als für regenerativen Strom, der in Deutschland erzeugt und über ein entsprechend ausgebautes Stromnetz an die Ladestationen transportiert wird.
Abstract
en Germany will probably not be able to cover its future demand for renewable electricity itself. The transport of electricity from areas with a large generation potential for renewable electricity is very expensive. On the other hand, the transport of e‐fuels, such as methanol, petrol, diesel or hydrogen, is cheap because an existing infrastructure can be used up to the filling stations and the transport of liquids over long distances costs much less than the transport of electricity. If these boundary conditions are taken into account in a cost calculation based on process simulations, the specific energy costs for e‐fuels that are produced in windy regions of Chile and delivered to the German filling stations are lower than for renewable electricity that is produced in Germany and has to be transported to the charging stations via an appropriately developed electricity network.
Green hydrogen plays a major role in the net-zero greenhouse gas-reduction strategy of the European Union. To supply hydrogen as cheap as possible, a well-balanced production system is needed to handle fluctuations of solar radiation and wind energy. Thus, this paper investigates the onsite hydrogen supply costs in the European catchment area in 2020, 2030, 2040 and 2050. Furthermore, a subsequent transport per pipeline to one of the projected demand centres in Europe (exemplary Germany) is considered. Also, the sensitivity regarding the additional use of salt caverns as hydrogen storage and less restricting supply profiles is assessed as well as the technical annual supply potential for 2030 and 2050. To do so, the optimal system design for minimized hydrogen supply cost for water electrolysis based on photovoltaic and wind turbines is estimated for a 0.5° x 0.5° grid using a linear optimization model. For the best locations, coastal regions at the North Sea, Western Sahara and parts of Algeria, onsite hydrogen supply cost decreases from 3 €2020/kgH2 in 2030 to 2 €2020/kgH2 in 2050. The technical hydrogen supply potential is tremendous, especially from Northern Africa, and a supply to Central Europe (Germany) via pipeline for around 3 €2020/kgH2 is possible in 2050, while a domestic hydrogen production in Germany covering the projected demand would lead to cost up to 4.5 €2020/kgH2. Furthermore, a large scale hydrogen storage e.g. in salt caverns, can reduce the hydrogen supply costs for regions with high seasonality of solar and wind up to 50% and excess electricity to less than 10%, leading to fewer cost deviations between the sub-regions, resulting in lower import costs from Northern and Western Europe than from Northern Africa or Middle East.
Solar energy, as a renewable and clean energy, has a remarkable share in improving the water-energy-food nexus. However, due to occupying a vast area of land, the development of large-scale photovoltaic systems is a serious challenge, particularly in regions with land restrictions. As a solution, it has been argued that the installation of the floating photovoltaic systems on the water reservoirs can save land as well as reduce the evaporation rate. The aim of this work is to economically and environmentally evaluate the feasibility of the installation of a 10-megawatt floating photovoltaic power plant on a water reservoir. The results obtained show that the payback period of investment and internal rate of return are achieved at 5.2 years and 20.4%, respectively. It is also found that if only 0.3% of the water reservoir surface is covered, the evaporation volume will be decreased from 441.2 up to 515.2 thousand cubic meters. Moreover, the environmental assessment demonstrates that 8470 to 15311 tons of CO2 and 27 to 52.3 tons of NOx are not released into the atmosphere. Ultimately, the sensitivity analysis proves that if the capital cost is reduced by 30%, the payback period will be shortened to 3.6 years. Furthermore, such a project in Chah-nimeh will be profitable as long as the electricity purchasing tariffs are more than US$ 0.096/kWh.
The exploitation of RES and their combination with desalination may be the solution to water scarcity and volatility of the electricity grids in remote offshore areas around the world. This research work investigates an HRES of a 12 MW wind park, a 1.8 MW photovoltaic park and a 1000 m 3/d desalination plant in Karpathos, Greece. Concerning the wind and solar power, 30% and 20% respectively is integrated to the grid and the remaining is obtainable for desalination and water pumping, which is used as energy storage. The surplus energy returns to the grid, reducing the deficit. The project’s lifespan is 40 years, rendering the stochastic time series necessary and the paper culminates in the economic sustainability investigation of this HRES. Several results can be obtained, as follows: i) the HRES’ reliability is high, since the system is able to cover the entire drinking water needs of the island, 89.75% of irrigation and 50.63% of energy needs. ii) The wind and solar potential of Karpathos has a decisive role, possessing the 3.02% of the total produced energy. iii) The IRR of various selling prices of desalinated water and energy ranges from 10% to 17%, rendering the investment viable and even profitable.
This chapter provides a detailed discussion on various renewable energy sources for desalination, and power system performance analysis by using hybrid systems. Water and energy are two essential components of human life that influence the growth and development of society. Renewable energy is becoming more popular as technology improves. Employing renewable energy sources has a number of drawbacks, the most significant of which is their unpredictability, which can be mitigated by using storage devices or combining them with other renewable energy sources. The prospects of imploring hybrid technologies for desalination is another aspect explored in this chapter.
Renewable energies are being given increasing attention worldwide, as they are able to reduce the dependence on depletable fossil fuels. At the same time, wastewater treatment is known to be a significantly energy-intensive sector, which could potentially exploit renewable energies conversion in different forms. This study investigated
the feasibility to design high renewable share wastewater treatment plants through dynamic simulations and optimization, aiming to move towards greener and energy-wise wastewater remediation processes. The main aim of the work was achieved by integrating photovoltaic systems with wind turbines, multi-energy storage technologies, i.e., batteries and hydrogen systems, and reverse osmosis tertiary treatment to absorb the power production surpluses. It was supposed that, in the newly proposed scenario, most of the plant electricity need
would be covered by renewable energy. The optimization problem was multi-objective and found the trade-off solutions between minimizing the net present cost and maximizing the renewable share. In the first part of the study, the model was developed and applied to a medium-scale Italian municipal wastewater treatment plant. Model generalization was successively accomplished by applying the model to different locations and plant scales across the world. For all the investigated scenarios and cases, the optimal system integration was to design a renewable and storage system with a renewable share of 70%, corresponding to the lowest net present cost. The developed model is highly flexible and can be applied to other relevant case studies, boosting for a more sustainable wastewater treatment sector, enhancing at the same time local renewable energy conversion.
The specific power consumption in RO desalination plants is one of the most effective parameters involved in optimizing the design and operation of these plants for the treatment of brackish water and seawater. Therefore, this study aimed to simulate an innovative stand-alone desalination plant that consumes less power and is suitable for remote areas. To achieve this goal, the RO desalination unit (operated with an energy recovery device) was provided with the solar-PV panels with the thermal recovery system and the solar dish concentrator with the solar thermal receiver. The solar-PV panels were utilized to power the RO desalination unit, in addition, both the thermal recovery system of the PV panels and the solar dish concentrator with the solar thermal receiver were utilized as pre-heating units. To heat the feed water before it is pumped to the RO desalination plant, in order to reduce the specific power consumption rates. The solar pre-heating process of feed water was carried out in two successive stages; in the first stage, the feed water is heated by passing it through the thermal recovery system of the PV panels to cool it down and thus improve its performance. In the second stage, the feed water is heated by passing it through the solar thermal receiver of a solar dish condenser. The results indicated that the use of solar pre-heating units to heat the feed water has positive effects in terms of increasing the membrane permeability and decreasing the losses of fluid friction across the membranes and narrow flow channels, and this represents a positive and very important factor for reducing the rates of specific power consumption (SPCRO-PX) in the RO desalination units with energy recovery device. Where, the saving in SPCRO-PX for utilizing the solar pre-heating unit ranged between 24.33 and 35.79% and 18.69–22.87% in the case of treating brackish water and seawater, respectively as compared to the case without solar pre-heating units.
This paper outlines how an existing energy system can be transformed into a 100% renewable energy system. The transition is divided into a number of key stages which reflect key radical technological changes on the supply side of the energy system. Ireland is used as a case study,but in reality this reflects many typical energy systems today which use power plants for electricity, individual boilers for heat, and oil for transport. The seven stages analysed are 1) reference, 2) introduction of district heating, 3) installation of small and large-scale heat pumps,4) reducing grid regulation requirements, 5) adding flexible electricity demands and electric vehicles, 6) producing synthetic methanol/DME for transport, and finally 7) using synthetic gas to replace the remaining fossil fuels. For each stage, the technical and economic performance of the energy system is calculated. The results indicate that a 100% renewable energy system can provide the same end-user energy demands as today’s energy system and at the same price. Electricity will be the backbone of the energy system, but the flexibility in today’s electricity sector will be transferred from the supply side of the demand side in the future. Similarly, due to changes in the type of spending required in a 100% renewable energy system, this scenario will result in the creation of 100,000 additional jobs in Ireland compared to an energy system like today’s. These results are significant since they indicate that the transition to a 100% renewable energy system can begin today, without increasing the cost of energy in the short- or long-term, if the costs currently forecasted for 2050 become a reality.
Jordan is a country faced with several environmental and energy related issues. It is the Worlds' fourth most water deprived country with a water consumption of only 145 m3 per capita annually, less than a third of the established severe water poverty line. Jordan is also a country rich in wind and solar potential but practically no utilization with 99% of the produced electricity coming from imported fossil fuels resulting in high CO2 emissions and a potential security of supply issue. The utilization of reverse osmosis desalination in a combination with brine operated pump storage units and wind and (PV) photovoltaic plants can tackle both issues. The desalination plants can produce the much needed water and act as a flexible demand to increase the penetration of intermittent renewables supported by the brine operated pump storage units. This paper presents six scenarios for the development of the Jordanian energy system until the year 2050. The results have shown that the demonstrated configuration can increase the share of intermittent renewables in the production of electricity up to 76% resulting in a high reduction of fuel consumption, CO2 emissions and costs. These analyses have been performed using the EnergyPLAN advanced energy system analyses tool.
The Power-to-Gas (PtG) process chain could play a significant role in the future energy system. Renewable electric energy can be transformed into storable methane via electrolysis and subsequent methanation.
This article compares the available electrolysis and methanation technologies with respect to the stringent requirements of the PtG chain such as low CAPEX, high efficiency, and high flexibility.
Three water electrolysis technologies are considered: alkaline electrolysis, PEM electrolysis, and solid oxide electrolysis. Alkaline electrolysis is currently the cheapest technology; however, in the future PEM electrolysis could be better suited for the PtG process chain. Solid oxide electrolysis could also be an option in future, especially if heat sources are available.
Several different reactor concepts can be used for the methanation reaction. For catalytic methanation, typically fixed-bed reactors are used; however, novel reactor concepts such as three-phase methanation and micro reactors are currently under development. Another approach is the biochemical conversion. The bioprocess takes place in aqueous solutions and close to ambient temperatures.
Finally, the whole process chain is discussed. Critical aspects of the PtG process are the availability of CO2 sources, the dynamic behaviour of the individual process steps, and especially the economics as well as the efficiency.
This study presents roadmaps for each of the 50 United States to convert their all-purpose energy systems (for electricity, transportation, heating/cooling, and industry) to ones powered entirely by wind, water, and sunlight (WWS). The plans contemplate 80-85% of existing energy replaced by 2030 and 100% replaced by 2050. Conversion would reduce each state’s end-use power demand by a mean of ~39.3% with ~82.4% of this due to the efficiency of electrification and the rest due to end-use energy efficiency improvements. Year 2050 end-use U.S. all-purpose load would be met with ~30.9% onshore wind, ~19.1% offshore wind, ~30.7% utility-scale photovoltaics (PV), ~7.2% rooftop PV, ~7.3% concentrated solar power (CSP) with storage, ~1.25% geothermal power, ~0.37% wave power, ~0.14% tidal power, and ~3.01% hydroelectric power. Based on a parallel grid integration study, an additional 4.4% and 7.2% of power beyond that needed for annual loads would be supplied by CSP with storage and solar thermal for heat, respectively, for peaking and grid stability. Over all 50 states, converting would provide ~3.9 million 40-year construction jobs and ~2.0 million 40-year operation jobs for the energy facilities alone, the sum of which would outweigh the ~3.9 million jobs lost in the conventional energy sector. Converting would also eliminate ~62,000 (19,000-115,000) U.S. air pollution premature mortalities/yr today and ~46,000 (12,000-104,000) in 2050, avoiding ~$600 ($85-$2,400) bil./yr (2013 dollars) in 2050, equivalent to ~3.6 (0.5-14.3) percent of the 2014 U.S. gross domestic product. Converting would further eliminate ~$3.3 (1.9-7.1) tril./yr in 2050 global warming costs to the world due to U.S. emissions. These plans will result in each person in the U.S. in 2050 saving ~$260 (190-320)/yr in energy costs ($2013 dollars) and U.S. health and global climate costs per person decreasing by ~$1,500 (210-6,000)/yr and ~$8,300 (4,700-17,600)/yr, respectively. The new footprint over land required will be ~0.42% of U.S. land. The spacing area between wind turbines, which can be used for multiple purposes, will be ~1.6% of U.S. land. Thus, 100% conversions are technically and economically feasible with little downside. These roadmaps may therefore reduce social and political barriers to implementing clean-energy policies.
Photovoltaic (PV) is one of the fastest growing electricity generation technologies in the world. Average annual growth rates of global PV-installations have reached around 45% for the last 15 years, which triggered a fast and ongoing reduction of production cost in PV industry. The presented work aims at consolidating historical price and cost information, deriving refined learning curves for PV modules and systems, and analysing the main factors of learning. For c-Si modules a valid learning rate of 17% is found based on a meta-analysis of various studies. In early years, even a learning rate of 30% is observed. As an example for thin-film PV, CdTe module cost reduce by 16% as the cumulated production output doubles. Interestingly, efficiency improvements contribute only in second order to the overall cost reduction for both technologies, emphasising the relevance of production excellence and economies of scale. On PV system level, a cost reduction of 14% per doubling of cumulated installed capacity is derived. Finally, a sensitivity analysis reveals that learning rate variations are only of minor influence on the overall global PV market potential.
Global water planners are increasingly considering seawater desalination as an alternative to traditional freshwater supplies. Since desalination is both expensive and energy intensive, taking advantage of favorable natural and societal conditions while siting desalination facilities can provide significant financial and environmental returns. Currently, policy makers do not use a location-specific integrated analytical framework to determine where natural and societal conditions are conducive to desalination. This analysis seeks to fill that gap by demonstrating a multi-criteria, geographically-resolved methodology for identifying suitable regions for desalination infrastructure where 1) available renewable resources can offset part of the fossil energy load; 2) feedwater characteristics reduce the total energy needed for desalination; and 3) human populations have capacity and willingness to pay for desalinated water. This work demonstrates the method with a quantitative global analysis that identifies favorable sites for solar-aided seawater reverse osmosis desalination (SWRO) based on specific target criteria. Location-based data about natural conditions (solar insolation, ocean salinity, and ocean temperature) are integrated and mapped with social indicators (water stress, prevailing water prices, and population) to identify regions where solar-aided SWRO has the highest potential. This work concludes that water-stressed tropical and subtropical cities show the highest potential for economically sustainable solar-aided SWRO.
A thermodynamic study is performed on a Reverse Osmosis (RO) desalination unit with and without energy recovery device. Such a study is based on the application of mass and energy balances on each subsystem as well as on the whole unit and using the properties of saltwater modelled as ideal solution. Three configurations of the desalination unit are considered. The first configuration includes a throttling valve in the rejection of concentrated brine side while the two others incorporate a hydraulic turbine and a pressure exchanger system (PES) respectively. The results show the variation of several performance indicators with several variables such as the feed salinity and temperature and the applied pressure. Examples of these indicators are the specific energy consumption (expressed in kWh/m3 of fresh water produced) and the recovery ratio. The results show the importance of incorporating an energy recovery device when the feed salinity is high. Besides, a theoretical minimum specific energy consumption was obtained and presented for the cases with and without pressure exchanger system.
Various studies have attempted to consolidate published estimates of water use impacts of electricity generating technologies, resulting in a wide range of technologies and values based on different primary sources of literature. The goal of this work is to consolidate the various primary literature estimates of water use during the generation of electricity by conventional and renewable electricity generating technologies in the United States to more completely convey the variability and uncertainty associated with water use in electricity generating technologies.
This manual is a guide for analyzing the economics of energy efficiency and renewable energy (EE) technologies and projects. It is intended: (1) to help analysts determine the appropriate approach or type of analysis and the appropriate level of detail, and (2) to assist EE analysts in completing consistent analyses using standard assumptions and bases, when appropriate. Included are analytical techniques that are commonly required for the economic analysis of EE technologies and projects. The manual consists of six sections: Introduction, Fundamentals, Selection Criteria Guide, Economic Measures, Special Considerations for Conservation and Renewable Energy Systems, and References. A glossary and eight appendices are also included. Each section has a brief introductory statement, a presentation of necessary formulae, a discussion, and when appropriate, examples and descriptions of data and data availability. The objective of an economic analysis is to provide the information needed to make a judgment or a decision. The most complete analysis of an investment in a technology or a project requires the analysis of each year of the life of the investment, taking into account relevant direct costs, indirect and overhead costs, taxes, and returns on investment, plus any externalities, such as environmental impacts, that are relevant to the decision to be made. However, it is important to consider the purpose and scope of a particular analysis at the outset because this will prescribe the course to follow. The perspective of the analysis is important, often dictating the approach to be used. Also, the ultimate use of the results of an analysis will influence the level of detail undertaken. The decision-making criteria of the potential investor must also be considered.
Energy consumption is a key factor which influences the freshwater production cost in reverse osmosis (RO) process. Energy recovery and reuse options have already been very well explored in the current desalination industry. Achieving minimum theoretical specific energy consumption for water recovery is not feasible due to effects of concentration polarization, membrane fouling and hydraulic resistance to permeate flow. Due to these limitations, energy recovery along with water recovery can be a better alternative to improve energy consumption and economics of the RO process both in small and large scale applications. This paper reviews currently available process configurations, operating strategies, and discusses potential pathways to recover and recycle energy and water to improve the performance of the RO process.
A need for the development of a renewable energy (RE) based system has emerged from the fast rise of electricity demand and increasing ecological problems provoked by human activities, including a fossil fuel based energy sector. Availability of various types of RE resources in NorthEast Asian regions including solar, wind, hydro, biomass and geothermal energy resources enables the very promising vision of building a Super Grid connecting different regions' energy resources to achieve synergistic effects and make a 100% RE supply possible. The regions are composed of Japan, China, North and South Korea, Mongolia, East Siberia and Far Eastern federal districts of Russia. The energy mix of energy supply consists of distributed small-scale rooftop PV and centralized large scale solar PV, solar thermal electricity generation (CSP), wind onshore, hydropower, geothermal energy, bioenergy, and four different energy storage technologies. For every sub-region a cost-optimal mix of energy technologies and storage options is defined, optimal capacities are computed for regions interconnected by high-voltage direct current (HVDC) power lines, system cost and levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for each sub-region are computed, and total system LCOE of 58 – 77 €/MWh, depending on scenario assumptions, can be obtained. Integration of energy sectors leads to improved total system LCOE. The results clearly show that a 100% RE-based system is lower in cost than nuclear and fossil carbon capture and storage (CCS) alternatives. Solar PV is a core component for energy supply and reducing the total system costs.
A clear consensus exists in German society that renewable energy resources have to play a dominant role in the future German energy supply system. However, many questions are still under discussion; for instance the relevance of the different technologies such as photovoltaic systems and wind energy converters installed offshore in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. Concerns also exist about the cost of a future energy system mainly based on renewable energy. In the work presented here we tried to answer some of those questions. Guiding questions for this study were: (1) is it possible to meet the German energy demand with 100% renewable energy, considering the available technical potential of the main renewable energy resources? (2) what is the overall annual cost of such an energy system once it has been implemented? (3) what is the best combination of renewable energy converters, storage units, energy converters and energy-saving measures? In order to answer these questions, we carried out many simulation calculations using REMod-D, a model we developed for this purpose. This model is described in Part I of this publication. To date this model covers only part of the energy system, namely the electricity and heat sectors, which correspond to about 62% of Germany's current energy demand. The main findings of our work indicate that it is possible to meet the total electricity and heat demand (space heating, hot water) of the entire building sector with 100% renewable energy within the given technical limits. This is based on the assumption that the heat demand of the building sector is significantly reduced by at least 60% or more compared to today's demand. Another major result of our analysis shows that - once the transformation of the energy system has been completed - supplying electricity and heat only from renewables is no more expensive than the existing energy supply.
Further development of the North-East Asian energy system is at a crossroads due to severe limitations of the current conventional energy based system. For North-East Asia it is proposed that the excellent solar and wind resources of the Gobi desert could enable the transformation towards a 100% renewable energy system. An hourly resolved model describes an energy system for North-East Asia, subdivided into 14 regions interconnected by high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission grids. Simulations are made for highly centralized, decentralized and countrywide grids scenarios. The results for total system levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) are 0.065 and 0.081 €/(kW&h) for the centralized and decentralized approaches for 2030 assumptions. The presented results for 100% renewable resources-based energy systems are lower in LCOE by about 30–40% than recent findings in Europe for conventional alternatives. This research clearly indicates that a 100% renewable resources based energy system is THE real policy option.
The adoption of desalination for agricultural purposes in countries such as Australia has been very limited, with only a small number of cases available to demonstrate its suitability. This can be compared to countries such as Spain where the uptake has been significant. A number of suitable technologies such as reverse osmosis and electrodialysis are available to provide desalinated water, but not at a cost comparable to that for water commonly utilised for agricultural purposes. The use of blended waters, where the quality of the water is tailored to the crop may go part way to addressing this cost differential. However, if the overall efficiency of the combined production of water and food, as well as opportunities for better soil management is considered, then desalination's applicability to agriculture becomes more viable. The use of state of the art technologies for the provision of desalinated water for agriculture is most likely to be cost effective in a tightly controlled environment, using agricultural practices with the most-effective water use and crops with high productivity. Such conditions are often associated with greenhouses and the production of high-value irrigated crops, where the cost of water is small compared to the infrastructure investment.
Recent studies and projects have shown that a combination of a reverse osmosis desalination plant with a wind power supply is technologically feasible if the plant operates with fluctuating and intermittent loads and in this way follows the variable energy supply characteristic of a wind turbine. The direct integration of renewable energy into a reverse osmosis plant is described in this paper, as well as its relation with energy consumption as a consequence of the plant working under variable load conditions. The data obtained confirm the wide operating range of the plant with respect to the power available and the system specifications.
Experimental results are shown for different operating regimes, with significant data being obtained for the reverse osmosis process. The development of systems as described in this paper opens up a range of possibilities for expansion due to their excellent characteristics in terms of the new concept of plant operation at different pressures and flow rates along with the use of water production storage. According to the results shown in this paper, optimum plant performance was observed for a power input approximately 20% lower than the design specifications.
Depletion of water supplies for potable and irrigation use is a major problem in the rural wadi valleys of Saudi Arabia and other areas of the Middle East and North Africa. An economic analysis of supplying these villages with either desalinated seawater or treated wastewater conveyed via a managed aquifer recharge (MAR) system was conducted. In many cases, there are no local sources of water supply of any quality in the wadi valleys. The cost per cubic meter for supplying desalinated water is $2-5/m(3) plus conveyance cost, and treated wastewater via an MAR system is $0-0.50/m(3) plus conveyance cost. The wastewater reuse, indirect for potable use and direct use for irrigation, can have a zero treatment cost because it is discharged to waste in many locations. In fact, the economic loss caused by the wastewater discharge to the marine environment can be greater than the overall amortized cost to construct an MAR system, including conveyance pipelines and the operational costs of reuse in the rural environment. The MAR and associated reuse system can solve the rural water supply problem in the wadi valleys and reduce the economic losses caused by marine pollution, particularly coral reef destruction.
Increased production of energy from renewable sources leads to a need for both new and enhanced capacities for energy transmission and intermediate storage. The book first compares different available storage options and then introduces the power-to-gas concept in a comprehensive overview of the technology. The state of the art, advancements, and future requirements for both water electrolysis and methanation are described. The integration of renewable hydrogen and methane into the gas grid is discussed in terms of the necessary technological measures to be taken. Because the power-to-gas system is very flexible, providing numerous specific applications for different targets within the energy sector, possible business models are presented on the basis of various process chains taking into account different plant scales and operating scenarios. The influence of the scale and the type of the integration of the technology into the existing energy network is highlighted with an emphasis on economic consequences. Finally, legal aspects of the operation and integration of the power-to-gas system are discussed
Energy consumption is a key factor which influences the freshwater production cost in reverse osmosis (RO) process. Energy recovery and reuse options have already been very well explored in the current desalination industry. Achieving minimum theoretical specific energy consumption for water recovery is not feasible due to effects of concentration polarization, membrane fouling and hydraulic resistance to permeate flow. Due to these limitations, energy recovery along with water recovery can be a better alternative to improve energy consumption and economics of the RO process both in small and large scale applications. This paper reviews currently available process configurations, operating strategies, and discusses potential pathways to recover and recycle energy and water to improve the performance of the RO process.
Fuel-parity, i.e. the intersection of fossil fuel prices with PV generation cost, represents a major milestone for further photovoltaic (PV) diffusion besides grid-parity. A fuel-parity model is presented, which is based on levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) coupled with the experience curve approach. Preconditions for a successful hybridization of PV and fossil fuel power plants are discussed. The global fossil fuel power plant capacity is analysed for the economic hybridization market potential on a georeferenced localized basis for all fossil fuel power plants. LCOE of fossil fuel power plants are converging with those of PV in sunny regions, but in contrast to PV are mainly driven by fuel cost. As a consequence of cost trends this analysis estimates an enormous worldwide market potential for PV power plants by the end of this decade in the order of at least 900 GWp installed capacity without any electricity grid constraints leading to a fast diffusion of hybrid PV-Fossil power plants. The complementary power feed-in of PV and wind power plants might result in hybrid PV-Wind-Fossil power plants in regions of good solar and wind resources. In the mid- to long-term the remaining fossil fuels might be substituted by renewable power methane by using the existing downstream natural gas infrastructure. In conclusion, PV is on the pathway to become a highly competitive energy technology.
This study demonstrates – based on a dynamical simulation of a global, decentralized 100% renewable electricity supply scenario – that a global climate-neutral electricity supply based on the volatile energy sources photovoltaics (PV), wind energy (onshore) and concentrated solar power (CSP) is feasible at decent cost. A central ingredient of this study is a sophisticated model for the hourly electric load demand in >160 countries. To guarantee matching of load demand in each hour, the volatile primary energy sources are complemented by three electricity storage options: batteries, high-temperature thermal energy storage coupled with steam turbine, and renewable power methane (generated via the Power to Gas process) which is reconverted to electricity in gas turbines. The study determines – on a global grid with 1°x1° resolution – the required power plant and storage capacities as well as the hourly dispatch for a 100% renewable electricity supply under the constraint of minimized total system cost (LCOE). Aggregating the results on a national level results in an levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) range of 80-200 EUR/MWh (on a projected cost basis for the year 2020) in this very decentralized approach. As a global average, 142 EUR/MWh are found. Due to the restricted number of technologies considered here, this represents an upper limit for the electricity cost in a fully renewable electricity supply.
Desalination capacity has rapidly increased in the last decade because of the increase in water demand and a significant reduction in desalination cost as a result of significant technological advances, especially in the reverse osmosis process. The cost of desalinated seawater has fallen below US$0.50/m3 for a large scale seawater reverse osmosis plant at a specific location and conditions while in other locations the cost is 50% higher (US$1.00/m3) for a similar facility. In addition to capital and operating costs, other parameters such as local incentives or subsidies may also contribute to the large difference in desalted water cost between regions and facilities. Plant suppliers and consultants have their own cost calculation methodologies, but they are confidential and provide water costs with different accuracies. The few existing costing methodologies and software packages such as WTCost© and DEEP provide an estimated cost with different accuracies and their applications are limited to specific conditions. Most of the available cost estimation tools are of the black box type, which provide few details concerning the parameters and methodologies applied for local conditions. Many desalination plants built recently have greater desalinated water delivery costs caused by special circumstances, such as plant remediation or upgrades, local variation in energy costs, and site-specific issues in raw materials costs (e.g., tariffs and transportation). Therefore, the availability of a more transparent and unique methodology for estimating the cost will help in selecting an appropriate desalination technology suitable for specific locations with consideration of all the parameters influencing the cost. A techno-economic evaluation and review of the costing aspects and the main parameters influencing the total water cost produced by different desalination technologies are herein presented in detail. Some recent developments, such as the increase of unit capacity, improvements in process design and materials, and the use of hybrid systems have contributed to cost reduction as well as reduction in energy consumption. The development of new and emerging low-energy desalination technologies, such as adsorption desalination, will have an impact on cost variation estimation in the future.
An arid climate with limited water resources and a growing tourism industry lead to water shortages in many coastal zones. Due to increasing demand, alternatives have to be found, e.g. desalination and long-distance water piping (equal to or further than 30 km), ecological sanitation, wastewater reuse or water demand management. This paper presents a cost comparison for two options to supply water of drinking water quality: Option 1 — Desalination with the reverse osmosis technology, or Option 2 — Long-distance water piping from the Nile, for the case of the tourist city of Sharm El Sheikh (Sharm) at the Red Sea in South Sinai, Egypt. Available water resources and current as well as future water demand figures for Sharm are presented. 91% of the current water demand stems from tourism; water is supplied mainly by privately owned RO desalination plants (86%). To analyze costs for Option 1, we compiled RO desalination plant costs (capital and O&M) for 14 RO plants in Egypt and 7 elsewhere for comparison. Unit production cost (US$/m3) of water from small RO desalination plants in Egypt is in most cases lower than international trends for similar small capacity plants (250 to 5,000 m3/d), but unit O&M costs are higher. For Option 2, we present cost data for four long-distance piping projects in Egypt which pump groundwater or treated Nile water to cities in South Sinai including Sharm. We found that unit capital costs for those pipelines which are longer than 140 km, are in fact above the cost of a possible RO desalination plant at any flow capacity. For unit production cost, desalination costs are lower than long-distance piping starting from pipelines with 300 km length or more and capacity ≥2000 m3/d. Empirical basic cost equations are produced to calculate unit capital cost (US$/m3/d) and unit production cost (US$/m3) for both options in dependence of capacity for Option 1, and capacity and pipe length for Option 2. This paper is part of a more comprehensive research project to develop a decision support system for integrated water resources management in tourism-dominated arid coastal regions.
Aqueduct Water Stress Projections: Decadal Projections of Water Supply and Demand Using CMIP5 GCMs, World Resources Institute
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sites/default/files/aqueduct-water-stress-projections-technical-note.pdf).
Bioenergy and renewable power methane in integrated 100% renewable energy systemsPhD thesis Faculty of
- M Sterner
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energy systemsPhD thesis Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science,
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Greenpeace International, Energy [r]evolution -a sustainable world energy outlook
Greenpeace International, Energy [r]evolution -a sustainable world energy outlook
2015, Amsterdam, A Report Commonly Published with GWEC and SPE, 2015.