Desalination 223 (2008) 448456

Water desalination cost literature: review and assessment

Ioannis C. Karagiannis*, Petros G. Soldatos
Agricultural University of Athens, Department of Agricultural Economics & Rural Development,
75 Iera Odos Street, GR 11855 Athens, Greece
Tel. +30 210 5294769; Fax +30 210 5294776; email: i.karagiannis@aua.gr
Received 21 December 2006; accepted 28 February 2007

Abstract
As water resources are rapidly being exhausted, more and more interest is paid to the desalination of seawater
and brackish water concentrations. Today, current desalination methods require large amounts of energy which is
costly both in environmental pollution and in money terms.
Many studies of water desalination costs appear regularly in water desalination and renewable energy related
publications. Cost estimates seem to be very much site specific and the cost per cubic metre ranges from
installation to installation.
This variability exists because the water cost depends upon many factors, unique in each case, most important
of which are the desalination method, the level of feed water salinity, the energy source, the capacity of the
desalting plant, and other site related factors.
This paper attempts the taxonomy of a large number of related publications, classified in a systematic method
and format, in order to allow meaningful comparisons and facilitate the derivation of useful conclusions.
Keywords: Desalination methods; Brackish; Seawater; Hybrid systems; Renewable energy sources; Desalination
tools

1. Introduction
Water is an abundant natural resource that
covers three quarters of the earths surface.
However, only about 3% of all water sources is
potable. About 25% of worlds population does
not have access to satisfactory quality and/or
quantity of freshwater and more than 80 countries

*Corresponding author.

face severe water problems. Worldwide drought

and desertification are expected to sharpen the
problem. Even countries that at present do not
face water shortages may have to tackle the
problem of fresh water scarcity in the near
future. According to the Worldwatch Institute,
more than two-thirds of the worlds population
may experience water shortages by 2025, thus
affecting practically every country in the world,
including the developed, unless they reduce
demand and/or develop additional water sources.

Presented at the conference on Desalination and the Environment. Sponsored by the European Desalination Society
and Center for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH), Sani Resort, Halkidiki, Greece, April 2225, 2007.
0011-9164/06/$ See front matter 2008 Published by Elsevier B.V.
doi:10.1016/j.desal.2007.02.071

I.C. Karagiannis, P.G. Soldatos / Desalination 223 (2008) 448456

Water desalination can be the solution to these

scarcity problems.
As the size of water desalination installations
is increasing, detailed cost analysis of process is
necessary for important investment decisions. In
this paper almost 100 different cases were examined and classified into categories according to
the type of feed water, the desalination method
and the type of energy used (conventional or
renewable). Furthermore, a number of hybrid
systems were examined, as well as tools that help
estimating the desalination cost are mentioned.
In the literature, the calculation of the desalination cost is based on different assumptions, by
different authors. There is for example significant
variation in interest rates and life expectancy of the
equipment. In some cases the estimation of freshwater cost does not include the investment cost and
in some others the required labour, or other operation costs. However, the taxonomy of all these cases
can facilitate the derivation of useful conclusions.
Out of a very large number of publications
on the subject, this is an attempt to present the
most recent, which are closer to todays situation and can provide more accurate data for the
cost of desalination.
2. Water desalination cost in relevance with
the type of feed water
According to US Congress (1988), for brackish
water, RO unit costs ranged from 0.26h1 (0.32$)
to 0.35h (0.44$) per m3, and for seawater, which
contains ten times the number of contaminates,
RO has unit costs ranging from 1.26h (1.57$) to
2.84h (3.55$) per m3 which in 2004 have fallen
to a range of 0.18h (0.22$) to 0.22h (0.28$)
per m3. However others mention that the current
costs for brackish water lie in the range of 0.06h
(0.07$) and 0.07h (0.08$) per m3 and that of

Calculation is based on the assumption that

1h = 1.25$.

449

seawater 0.40h (0.50$) and 0.56h (0.70$) per m3,

including capital and operating costs [1]. The
range reflects economies of scale due to size of
the plant.
According to AMTA [2], brackish water
desalination cost ranges between 0.30h (0.38$)
and 0.6h/m3 (0.75$/m3) and seawater varies
between 0.6h (0.75$) and 1.6h/m3 (2.00$/m3).
Having examined numerous cases, the results
obtained were the following:
For the desalination of brackish water, RO is
the method that is mainly used, as it is the most
economic. However, sometimes other methods
are used, as is for example in Kimolos island,
Greece, where the MED process takes advantage
of the geothermal energy of the island to produce
80 m3/day at a cost of 2.00h/m3 [3].
Brackish water total dissolved solids (TDS)
which can vary from 2000 ppm to approximately
10,000 ppm [4], affects the cost of water produced.
In Jordan brackish water cost of 2300 ppm is as
low as 0.21h/m3 (0.26$/m3) while in Florida for
brackish water of 5000 ppm the cost was 0.22h/m3
(0.27$/m3) [5]. Chaudhry [6] showed that two
similar systems that use water of different
volume of TDS have significantly different cost.
In the case of desalination of brackish water of
3000 ppm the cost is 0.26h/m3 (0.32$/m3), while
the desalination of water with 10,000 ppm has a
cost of 0.43h/m3 (0.54$/m3).
The cost of brackish water generally ranges
from 0.21h/m3 (0.26$/m3) to 0.43h/m3 (0.54$/m3)
[58]. When small units are used the cost can
vary. Karagiannis and Soldatos [9] found that
the cost of a desalination unit of 1000 m3/day is
0.79h/m3. Other estimations show that the cost
may vary from 0.62h/m3 (0.78$/m3) [10] to
0.98h/m3 (1.23$/m3) [11] or even 1.06h/m3
(1.33$/m3) [12].
When renewable energy sources are used the
cost can be as high as 8.26h/m3 (10.32$/m3) [3].
For the desalination of seawater the use of
RO method becomes more and more common
during the last years, as the cost of membranes

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I.C. Karagiannis, P.G. Soldatos / Desalination 223 (2008) 448456

Table 1
Capacity of desalination unit and cost of water produced
Type of feed water
Brackish

e of plant (m3/day)
<1000
Siz
500060,000

Seawater

<1000
10005000
12,00060,000
>60,000

decreases. However, the large desalination systems in many countries such as China or those in
Middle East which can reach a daily production
of even 500,000 m3 use mainly thermal desalination methods. In these cases the cost of fresh water
produced ranges between 0.40h/m3 (0.50$/m3)
and 0.80h/m3 (1.00$/m3).
For medium size systems (12,00060,000
m3/day), the cost of seawater desalination shows
higher variability, between 0.35h/m3 (0.44$/m3)
and 1.30h/m3 (1.62$/m3).
For smaller desalination units (daily capacity
of 10005000 m3) RO is the dominant method,
especially for the chronically latest installations
and the cost of seawater desalination is in the
range of 0.56h/m3 (0.70$/m3) and 3.15h/m3.
For seawater desalination units with a capacity from a few cubic metres to 1000 m3, the cost
can be even higher (1.7815.20h/m3). These small
systems use mainly renewable energy sources
and for this reason, as well as due to lower economies of scale the cost is so high. The above
results are summarised in Table 1.
3. Type of energy used and water
desalination cost
Desalination systems can be divided in two
categories: Those which use a conventional source

Cost (per m3)

Source of information

0.63h1.06h
(0.78$1.33$)
0.21h0.43h
(0.26$0.54$)

[912]

1.78h9.00h
0.56h3.15h
0.35h1.30h
(0.44$1.62$)
0.40h0.80h
(0.50$1.00$)

[3,5,1318]
[5,3,1923]
[5,6,2432]

[58]

[25,28,29,3337]

of energy and those powered by renewable energy

sources (wind, solar, etc).
As could easily be understood, the cost of
water produced from desalination systems using
a conventional source of energy, (gas, oil, electricity) is much lower. For systems of brackish
water and conventional source of energy, the
cost ranges between 0.21h/m3 (0.26$/m3) and
1.06h/m3 (1.33$/m3) when very small units are
used. Similarly, seawater desalination plants
have a cost which varies between 0.35h/m3
(0.44$/m3) and 2.7h/m3 and only when the desalination unit is very small (23 m3 daily production) the cost can increase to approximately
5.50h/m3.
Desalination powered by RES, as opposed to
conventional desalination, may be an attractive
solution in terms of induced environmental impact
due to lower conventional energy consumption
and lower gas emissions. The majority of desalination systems that use a renewable energy source
can be divided into three categories: (a) wind,
(b) solar (photovoltaics or solar collectors) and
(c) those which use geothermal energy. In some
cases these systems are connected with a conventional source of energy (e.g. local electricity grid)
in order to minimize the variations in the level
of energy production and consequently water
production.

I.C. Karagiannis, P.G. Soldatos / Desalination 223 (2008) 448456

451

Table 2
Type of energy supply system and cost of water produced
Type of feedwater

Type of energy used

Cost (per m3)

Source of information

Brackish

Conventional

[58,1012]

Photovoltaics
Geothermal

0.21h1.06h
(0.26$1.33$)
4.50h10.32h
2.00h

Conventional

0.35h2.70h

Wind
Photovoltaics
Solar collectors

1.00h5.00h
3.14h9.00h
3.50h8.00h

Seawater

Kaldellis et al. [38] studied the desalinated

water production cost for remote islands, by using
RES (wind, solar) and RO desalination techniques and according to the results obtained, the
maximum water production cost was less than
2.5h/m3 for medium-size capacity installations
and no more than 3.5h/m3 in very small systems.
For stand alone wind energy driven desalination units, the cost of fresh water produced can
be as low as 1h/m3 [21] but it may reach 5h/m3
[3]. However for a Wind-RO unit with a capacity of 52,500 m3/day the cost can be lower than
1h/m3 [39]. When wind energy systems are connected to the electricity network, the cost varies
between 1.40h/m3 and 2.18h/m3 for systems
with low capacity, mainly around 1000 m3/day
[16,19,22]. Kershman et al. [16] presented a case
with wind energy system powered by a diesel
generator and the local grid network at an average
cost of 2.31h/m3.
When using photovoltaics for power generation in desalination units, the cost ranges between
3.14h/m3 and 10.32h/m3[3,15,19]. Fiorenza et al.
[40] claim that the water production cost for a
PV-RO plant with capacity of 5000 m3/day is at
the range of 1.6h/m3 (2$/m3), similar to that of
Solar Thermal/MEE and approximately 2.5 times
higher than that of a conventional system. For a
small unit of 300 m3/day, that uses both wind
energy and conventional electricity, Kershman

[3]
[3]
[5,6,13,1618,20,2332,
3437,41,42]
[3,16,19,21,22,39]
[15,19]
[3,14]

et al. [16] estimated the cost between 1.89 and

2.76h/m3 and when the energy system used at the
same time a diesel generator the cost was 2.23h/m3.
In Kimolos island, Greece, the use of geothermal energy for a system desalinating 80 m3 of
brackish water per day costs 2.00h/m3 of fresh
water produced [3].
When solar collectors are used for the desalination of seawater, mainly for small units and
experimental installations, the cost can be as
high as 3.5 to 8h/m3 [3,14].
Table 2 summarises the cost of fresh water
when the desalination unit is powered by different
energy sources.
4. Cost of desalinated water for different
desalination methods
Desalination methods can be classified under
two broad headings: (a) Phase change processes
(thermal methods) or (b) single phase (membrane
processes).
The most commonly used thermal methods
are multi-effect distillation (MED), multistage
flash (MSF) and vapour compression (VC) while
reverse osmosis (RO) is the most popular membrane method.
Thermal methods seem to be more effective
than membrane methods in terms of efficiency
in the desalination of very salty seawaters. In

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I.C. Karagiannis, P.G. Soldatos / Desalination 223 (2008) 448456

the year 2000, the cost of RO units, was estimated between 0.44h/m3 (0.55$/m3) and 2h/m3
(2.50$/m3) when plant capacity was in the range
of 1000100,000 m3/day.
With regard to thermal methods (namely
MSF), the cost varies from 0.56h/m3 (0.70$/m3) to
2h/m3 (2.50$/m3) in the range of capacity 10,000
100,000 m3/day (estimations in year 2000) [43].
Fiorenza et al. [40] claim that the typical
average capacity and corresponding cost for
desalination technologies in the world was
MSF: 25,000 m3/day and 0.88h/m3 (1.10$/m3)
MED: 10,000 m3/day and 0.64h/m3 (0.80$/m3)
VC: 3000 m3/day and 0.56h/m3 (0.70$/m3)
RO: 6000 m3/d and 0.56h/m3 (0.70$/m3)
Thermal methods are more expensive because
of the large quantities of fuel required to vaporize
salt water. Membrane methods, mainly RO,
which can desalt brackish water somewhat more
economically, have replaced thermal methods
for the desalination of brackish water. However,
because of the high cost of membrane replacement, membrane methods are less suitable for
desalinating seawater. Technological advancement has also allowed some reduction in the
total desalination cost, by improving energy efficiency (multiflash distillation or hybrid systems),
by facilitating transfer processes or by energy
recycling (process of cogeneration) [2].
Systems that use thermal methods have usually
large production capacity. In the case of MED,
the cost for large systems with a daily production
from 91,000 m3 to 320,000 m3 ranges between
0.42h/m3 (0.52$/m3) and 0.81h/m3 (1.01$/m3).
These costs refer to cases between 1999 and
2006 the most recent cases having lower cost,
while the older installations are the most expensive. For medium size systems, with a daily
production from 12,000 m3 to 55,000 m3, the
cost ranges between 0.76h/m3 (0.95$/m3) and
1.2h/m3 (1.5$/m3). For small systems with a daily
capacity around 100 m3, the cost varies between
2.00 and 8.00h/m3.

For the MSF method, the cost can vary between

0.42h/m3 (0.52$/m3) and 1.4h/m3 (1.75$/m3) and
refers to systems with daily production from
23,000 m3 to 528,000 m3.
VC is used mainly for small systems with
production around 1000 m3/day, at a cost that
ranges between 1.61h/m3 and 2.13h/m3 [19,22].
In the past RO was used mainly for the desalination of brackish water, but more recently it is
the predominant method for many types of desalination, due to its lower energy requirements.
Hence the application of the method has been
extended to larger units that can reach a daily
production of 320,000 m3. The cost of brackish
water ranges between 0.21h/m3 (0.26$/m3) and
0.43h/m3 (0.54$/m3) for systems with daily
capacity around 40,000 m3. For smaller systems
(201200 m3 daily production) the cost ranges
between 0.62h/m3 (0.78$/m3) and 1.06h/m3
(1.33$/m3). For very small systems that produce
a few cubic metres per day the cost varies
between 4.50h/m3 and 10.32h/m3.
RO has begun to compete in seawater desalination. During the last few years it is used for
even larger systems. In these cases (daily production of 100,000320,000 m3) the cost ranges
between 0.36h/m3 (0.45$/m3) and 0.53h/m3
(0.66$/m3). Medium size systems, with a daily
capacity of 15,00060,000 m3 produce water
between 0.39h/m3 (0.48$/m3) and 1.30h/m3
(1.62$/m3). Small size systems, with a capacity of 10004800 m3 per day, produce water at a
cost between 0.56h/m3 (0.7$/m3) and 1.38h/m3
(1.72$/m3). Even smaller systems than the
above, (with daily capacity of 2501000 m3),
produce water at a cost ranging from 1.00h/m3
to 3.14h/m3. The majority of these cases is powered by renewable energy, causing the higher
cost. Finally, very small units, (224 m3 daily
production) using renewable energy sources
alone, have a cost that varies between 1.2h/m3
and 15h/m3.
Tables 3 and 4 summarise the above
comments.

I.C. Karagiannis, P.G. Soldatos / Desalination 223 (2008) 448456

453

Table 3
Thermal methods and cost of water produced (per m3)
Desalination method

Size of plant (m3/day)

Cost (per m3)

Source of information

MED

<100
12,00055,000

2h8h
0.76h1.56h
(0.95$1.95$)
0.42h0.81h
(0.52$1.01$)

[3,14]
[25,27,28,31]

>91,000
MSF

23,000528,000

VC

10001200

5. Hybrid systems and water

desalination cost
Desalination units can use hybrid systems to
increase the productivity and/or reduce the cost.
A desalination unit can be hybridised not only
with regard to the energy source, but also the
desalination method.
Tzen [3] presented two small systems which
produce 3 m3/day, that use solar energy (photovoltaics), combined with wind turbine. In the
first case, the feed water was brackish and the
cost was 7.53h/m3, while, in the second, the unit
was supplied with seawater at a cost of 23h/m3.

0.42h1.40h
(0.52$1.75$)
1.61h2.13h

[25,28,29,3337]
[5,27,30,32,34,36]
[19,22]

Mohamed and Papadakis [15], using some

combinations between solar and wind energy
supply systems, estimated the cost of a PV-wind
energy system for seawater desalination at
5.215.28h/m3. Finally, Kershman et al. [16]
showed that for larger systems (300 m3 daily
production) when the photovoltaics are combined with wind turbines and are also connected
to the electricity grid, the cost can be as low
as 2.43h/m3.
Tian et al. [36] showed that when an MSF
seawater plant of 528,000 m3/day is combined
with a RO desalination unit for producing the

Table 4
Membrane (RO) methods and cost of water desalination (per m3)
Type of feed water

Size of plant (m3/day)

Cost (per m3)

Source of information

Brackish

<20
201200

4.50h10.32h
0.62h1.06h
(0.78$1.33$)
0.21h0.43h
(0.26$0.54$)

[3]
[912]

1.20h15.00h
1.00h3.14h
0.56h1.38h
(0.70$1.72$)
0.38h1.30h
0.48$1.62$)
0.36h0.53h
0.45$0.66$)

[3,15,17,18,42]
[5,13,16,19]
[5,13,20,22,23]

40,00046,000
Seawater

<100
2501000
10004800
15,00060,000
100,000320,000

[5,6]

[5,6,24,26,27,29,30,32]
[28,34,41]

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I.C. Karagiannis, P.G. Soldatos / Desalination 223 (2008) 448456

same volume of water then the cost can decrease

by 15%. Furthermore Wu and Zhang [29] presented a MED system that is combined with VC
system and produces 36,000 m3/day at a cost of
0.59h/m3 (0.73$/m3).
Turek and Dydo [43] claim that the performance of desalination and concentration in
hybrid membrane-thermal systems, seems to be
higher than the performance of solely membrane
desalination systems. Thermal methods seem to
be more effective than membrane methods in
terms of production of highly concentrated
brines. Hybrid NF-RO-MSF-crystallization systems offer very promising performance: high
water recovery (77.2%) and water cost as low as
0.30h/m3 (0.37$/m3).
6. Tools developed for estimating the
desalination cost
For the estimation of the cost many tools have
been developed, as is the case of the software
tools IPSEpro and RESYSpro which are capable
of doing technical, economic and ecological
analysis.
The Agricultural University of Athens, within
the framework of the ADIRA project which is
partially funded by the EC, has developed a
decision support tool (DST) with the codename
AUDESSY, that can estimate with some precision
the water desalination cost for systems using
renewable energy sources. AUDESSY is available
through the internet.
AUDESSY is designed for the non-specialist.
Its advance user interface combined with the
requirement of only the bare minimum of the
necessary information and data, makes it a handy
decision support tool in the hands of researcher
engineers and salesmen of environmentally
friendly desalination systems.
AUDESSY has been designed to study the
following combinations:
RO-PV (photovoltaics with reverse osmosis)
RO-wind (wind energy with reverse osmosis)

Hybrid RO-wind-PV (wind plus photovoltaics

with RO)
AUDESSY has been designed and developed
with two main goals:
To provide users with the simplified technical
assistance that will quickly lead to a complete
study of any given case, enhanced with financial evaluation and analytical cost reports and
To educate the user in many desalination
aspects and help him to obtain an accurate
and documented overview of the desalination
projects implementation and cost calculations.
The most important features of this tool are
The calculation speed (instant)
The operation simplicity (enabling anyone to
use it with almost no training at all)
The friendly interface (following MS-Windows
standard features)
Online support
The technical assistance provided by
AUDESSY enables users to:
(1) Identify technical information that may lead
to the optimised desalination system.
(2) Concentrate and administer a database that
includes system parts pricelists, (using intelligent cost item selector), names and addresses
of suppliers, climatic data, etc.
(3) Provide enhanced documentation including
mathematical formulas (technical equations) that are being used by the model for
financial and engineering calculations.
7. Conclusions
Desalination cost has decreased over the last
years due to technical improvements and learning in a world of increasing fossil fuel prices.
For conventional systems the cost for seawater
ranges from 0.4h/m3 to more than 3h/m3, while
for brackish water desalination the cost is almost
half. When renewable energy sources are used

I.C. Karagiannis, P.G. Soldatos / Desalination 223 (2008) 448456

the cost is much higher, and in some cases can

reach even 15h/m3, due to most expensive energy
supply systems. However, this cost is counterbalanced by the environmental benefits.
The choice of desalination method affects
significantly the water desalination cost. Thermal
methods are used mainly in medium and large
size systems, while membrane methods, mainly
RO, are used by medium and low capacity
systems. Yet, during the last years, RO is the
optimal choice in even larger units. RO methods,
which are dominant in the desalination of brackish
water, have the lowest cost, mainly due to much
lower energy consumption and the recent technological advances that have been achieved in
membranes.
Under special conditions hybrid systems can
offer increased and more stable production of
fresh water.
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