Saud Aljaidi, Abdulrahman Al-Hashemi, Abdulla Al-Shahwani, Karim Youssef, Mohammed Al-

Ansari.
Dr. Naqaa Abbas
ENGL-210
Problem Statement
Saturday, March 23, 2024.

Reducing Qatar’s Energy Consumption in Desalination Plants.

Problem:

Qatar is a Middle Eastern country on a 11600 km square peninsula in the Arabian Gulf. Because
of its geographical location, there are no lakes or rivers, and the only natural freshwater source is
groundwater, which gets replenished mainly by rains in the winter (Authority, 2022). As a result
of the lack of freshwater sources that can sustain the nation's needs for potable water, Qatar needed
to find different methods to supply its growing population of 2.9 million needs that has been
steadily increasing by approximately 7% annually over the past decade, according to data from the
Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation “KAHRAMAA” (Saleem et al., 2023). This surge
in demand is attributed to factors such as population growth, urbanization, and industrial
development. As a solution, the country constructed several desalination plants that convert
seawater into freshwater suitable for human use (Saleem et al., 2023). Based on data from Qatar's
Planning & Statistics Authority, these desalination plants contributed to more than 93% of the
water used for domestic use in 2021 (Authority, 2022). However, desalination requires a massive
amount of energy to separate the water from the salt and other unwanted molecules. For example,
Reverse osmosis (RO), (as shown in Figure 1), is one of the most efficient desalination methods
that applies pressure to process freshwater. On the other hand, mechanical vapor compression
(MVC) filters water by using high temperatures. Their energy consumption rate to produce cubic
meters of freshwater is 5 to 9 and 7 to 12 Kilowatts per hour for RO and MVC, respectively (Do
Thi et al., 2021). To overcome these energy inefficiency issues, which produce a lot of harmful
emissions, Qatar can explore different desalination methods or improve the current methods by
capturing the wasted energy to produce the required power for the process.

Figure 1. A diagram that shows Reverse Osmosis (RO) desalination plant.

Purpose:
The team's primary purpose in investigating this problem is to explore solutions that minimize the
excessive amounts of energy being consumed in desalination. The purpose of this project aligns
with Qatar’s National vision of 2030 where the project contributes to the four pillars: economic,
human, social, and environmental (General Secretariat for Development Planning, 2008). Through
our research, we hope to find a realistic and practical solution that is suitable for Qatar, that will
reduce the amount of energy being used and rely more on renewable sources to power a
desalination plant.
Objectives:
Our team's objective in conducting and presenting this technical report is to suggest a solution to
reduce the amount of energy used in the desalination process in Qatar that we deem feasible and
worthy of implementation. To measure whether we achieved the purpose of the report, we should
consider the following:

 If the considered solution was determined to be feasible to implement based on the three
standards found below.
 If the proposed solution aligns with Qatar's National Vision 2030 goals and has no or minor
damaging effects on its pillars.
 If we answered most of our audience's concerns related to our solution.
In order to determine whether the proposed solutions could work, we will consider the following:
 How feasible is the solution? Has it been implemented in other countries in the region?
 Is the suggested method more efficient than the current technique by a considerable
margin?
 Is the cost of implementing the solution worth it in terms of costs and harmful effects?
Scope:
Fresh water poses 3.46% of total water available on Earth, while the rest is saline water in the
oceans. Thus, many countries such as: Algeria, Australia, and Middle eastern countries resorted to
desalination of seawater as the main source of fresh water for their people. However, as mentioned
above, desalination is an energy intensive process while energy is limited and expensive. In GCC
countries desalination processes consume 25% of the total annual energy, and it is expected to
increase annually by 2.2% (Shahzad & Ng, 2017). Moreover, this energy consumption in
desalination is accompanied by large amounts of CO2 emissions (Figure 2) giving that it is mainly
powered by primary sources of energy such as: oil and gas which are the main sources of CO2
emissions globally with coal. This contributes to many environmental issues such as global
warming. Figure 2 also shows that the 25% of total energy consumed in desalination contributes
to the population and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rates. Thus, governments have
invested millions of dollars to reduce energy consumption and the cost of desalination. Making it
a global trend and hot area of research. This project will focus on Qatar’s energy consumption in
desalination as a case study. In 2021, Qatar’s fresh water sources were: 23% groundwater, 61%
desalination of seawater, and 16% sewage water treatment (Authority, 2022). This fact directly
impacts the country’s social, economic, and environmental pillars in its 2030 vision and providing
a pivotal necessity for its people and growth. Socially, water is the source of life and without it
humanity will cease to exist. Economically, the cost of 1 kWh of electricity in Qatar is 0.13 QAR
(NREL, 2021) which means the cost of desalinating 1 m3 of seawater is 1.56 QAR.
Environmentally, 1 kWh of electricity generated by natural gas steam turbines emits 486 g of
greenhouse gas emission (GHG) (NREL, 2021). Which largely contributes to Qatar’s ranking as
the highest CO2 emissions per capita globally in 2020 (Ritchie & Roser, 2020). All these factors
make this an urgent issue to be solved to achieve QNV 2030.

Figure 2. Relationship between energy consumption and CO2 emissions in GCC countries.

Previous Research:
In previous research from 2011 (Darwish, 2011), the Kuwaiti Ministry of Electricity and Water
tried to introduce solar energy to generate electric power for the desalination of water, and results
showed that it was not enough to handle increasing loads required for desalinating water, and
supplementary fossil fuel or a thermal storage system were suggested additions to create a
dispatchable power plant. A theoretical investigation was also done in 2016 (Ismail et al., 2016)
to simulate a desalination plant utilizing renewable energy which showed that solar intensity, water
salinity and site selection are key factors to a good performance for the plant.
In 2013, the UAE studied the possibility of integrating nuclear energy in desalination. The study
composed a small sized nuclear heat-only plant (SNHP) dedicated to desalination. The SNHP uses
well-proven pressurized light water-cooled reactor (PWR) technologies but does not generate any
electricity. However, the project faced several political and safety concerns (Jung et al., 2014).
Moreover, an improved adsorption desalination cycle was proposed in 2017 for GCC countries.
The cycle was compromised by a hybrid of multiple cascade evaporators and an adsorption cycle.
Silica gel was used in this study to absorb the vapor produced in the evaporators due to its pore
surface area of 700-800 m2g-1 (Shahzad & Ng, 2017).
Furthermore, a methodology based on the principle of process integration combined with
mathematical optimization was developed in 2016 to determine the optimal feed flow rate to each
effect of the Multiple-effect evaporator (MEE) desalination process. MEE was represented as a
Grand Composite Curve (GCC) to understand energy integration and provide better insight of the
problem. The results of this study showed that a 12-effect MEE can be increased by 11% with
optimized feed flow rate (Sharan & Bandyopadhyay, 2016).
Current Research:
One area of focus in current research is the development and optimization of membrane-based
desalination technologies, particularly reverse osmosis (RO). Researchers have been exploring
novel membrane materials, membrane configurations, and fouling mitigation strategies to improve
the energy efficiency and performance of RO desalination plants. By enhancing membrane
selectivity and permeability, as well as optimizing operating conditions, such as pressure and
temperature, researchers aim to minimize energy consumption while maximizing water recovery
rates.

Additionally, there has been a growing interest in hybrid desalination systems that integrate
renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind power, to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and
decrease carbon emissions. These hybrid systems combine conventional desalination technologies
with renewable energy-driven processes to enhance overall energy efficiency and sustainability.
Research efforts in Qatar have focused on designing and implementing pilot-scale hybrid
desalination plants to assess their feasibility, reliability, and cost-effectiveness in real-world
applications.
Furthermore, advancements in process optimization, control systems, and automation technologies
have played a crucial role in improving the energy efficiency of desalination plants. Researchers
have been employing advanced control algorithms, machine learning techniques, and data
analytics to optimize plant operations, minimize energy wastage, and enhance overall system
performance. By leveraging real-time data monitoring and predictive modeling, operators can
optimize energy consumption, reduce downtime, and extend equipment lifespan, leading to
significant energy and cost savings.
Moreover, research initiatives in Qatar have been exploring innovative water treatment and pre-
treatment strategies to improve the efficiency of desalination processes and minimize energy
consumption. By implementing advanced pre-treatment techniques, such as membrane filtration,
biofouling control, and chemical pretreatment, researchers aim to reduce membrane fouling and
scaling, thereby enhancing the longevity and performance of desalination plants. Additionally, the
integration of energy recovery devices, such as pressure exchangers and turbine generators, has
been investigated to capture and utilize the energy from brine discharge streams, further improving
overall energy efficiency.
User Needs:
The primary users affected by the energy consumption problem are the desalination plants because
the high energy consumption greatly affects the cost to maintain the desalination plants, taking up
to 75% of the operational costs involved (Australia, 2023). This problem poses a large threat to
the sustainability of the desalination plants, meaning that it is crucial to address the problem
effectively and as soon as possible.
The secondary users affected are the people reliant on desalination plants for the water supply. The
increase in water demand means that desalination plants are essential to providing fresh water to
the population of Qatar, which has resulted in requiring a large amount of energy consumption to
meet the demand. This means that any potential solutions that could be implemented will have to
reduce energy costs as much as possible for desalination plants while still reliably satisfying the
water demand for the population.
Design Constraints:
Qatar is a small country and as the population increases, the space required to implement solutions
will become more and more limited, which will restrict the scope and size of potential solutions
and must be considered when designing any solutions.
The team will also need to consider the costs of any materials that may be required for any given
solution, ensure that the materials that are used will be long-lasting and cost efficient to create or
ship to Qatar, maintain sustainability, and design solutions that will be effective and achievable in
the timeframe in which the solution will have to be implemented.
Implementation of any solutions will most likely require industry buy-ins and government
approval from organizations such as KAHRAMAA, which will also have to be considered when
designing any possible solutions. The team must design a solution that is sustainable, cost-
efficient, and gives consistent results to solve the problem.

References
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