Renewable Energy Powered

Desalination Plants

TECH 4340-5382
Robert Eby, Megan Gardner, Alyssa Loveday, Lucio Salazar
Background
● Increasing populations increase the demand for water
● Desalination is a proven technology to provide potable
water to water-scarce regions
● The cost of desalination powered by fossil fuels
increases as the price of fossil fuels increase
● Currently, renewable-powered desalination capacity
represents less than 1% of the world’s desalination
capacity
● Renewable energy desalination (RED) becomes more
attractive as renewable energy technology advance
and costs decline
Objectives of Renewable Energy Powered
Desalination Plants
1. Meet the increasing demand for freshwater
1. What regions are in the most demand for potable water? Why?
2. How much freshwater is provided by desalination plants?
1. Currently, only 1% of desalination is achieved using renewable energy.
How might this change in years to come?

2. Solve increasing costs of desalination using fossil fuels

1. Which renewable energy sources are most efficient?
2. Which renewable energy sources are most cost effective?
3. What is the environmental impact of switching from fossil fuels to renewable
energy?
Definitions
1. Water Scarcity: occurs when, in a particular time period, water demand nears or
exceeds water availability.

2. Desalination: the process of removing dissolved salts and minerals from saline
water to produce potable water.

3. Saline Water: classified depending on the Total Dissolved Solids (TDS).

Brackish water TDS is up to 10,000 ppm; Seawater TDS is up to 45,000 ppm.

4. Potable Water: Water that is safe to drink and has a salinity of less than 500 ppm.

5. Human Water Consumption: A cubic meter of water per day (m3/day) typically can
supply 20 - 50 people in the developing world.

6. Renewable Energy: energy from a source that is not depleted when used
Water scarcity by country

● Middle East
and North
Africa (MENA)
● Australia
● China
● India
● South Africa

Source: Mollahosseini et al. 2019.

 Trend in population density and water consumption

Source: Azevedo 2014

 Desalination Key Facts
● 8.5 Billion gallons per day of water is
desalinated worldwide
● Desalination is recognized as an
energy-intensive process where 50%
of the total cost is energy
● To produce 1,000 cubic meters of
water per day it requires about
10,000 tons of fossil fuel per year.
● Market prices for desalinated water
are typically in the range of $1-2/m3.
Desalination is costly and affordable
only for high to middle income Fujairah, United Arab Emirates Multi-Effect Distillation (MED)
regions. Desalination Plant
 Al Jubail, Saudi Arabia Multi-Stage Flash (MSF)
Desalination Plant

Sydney, Australia Reverse Osmosis (RO)

Desalination Plant
Source: Alkaisi 2017
 Global desalination capacity from 1965 - 2011

Source: Iska 2013.

 Energy required to deliver 1m3 of water for human
consumption from various sources
Source Energy Required (kWh/m3)

Lake or River 0.37

Groundwater 0.48

Wastewater Treatment 0.62 - 0.87

Wastewater Reuse 1 - 2.5

Seawater Desalination 2.5 - 8.5

Source: Azevedo 2014

Renewable Energy Powered Desalination Plants
(REDS)
● Process of removing salt from saline
water
● Two classifications
● Four main energy types
● 131 desalination plants (1%) used
renewable sources in 2018

Source: Abdelkareem 2018

Past and Current Research

Source: Abdelkareem 2018

Who Would Benefit the
Most from REDS
● Remote regions or islands
● Arid regions where conventional energy is
costly
● Coastal regions with abundant ocean
power
● General areas with high water demand
and high water stress

Source: https://bigthink.com/technology-innovation/solar-power-desalination
Ways REDS Meets the Needs of
Underserved Persons
● Provides safe and affordable water
● Provides a reliable water source for communities
and agriculture
● Helps preserve current freshwater supplies
Water!
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● As the world's population continues to grow, so will the demand for potable water.
● The changing environment due to climate change and the lack of appropriate
planning and mismanagement has decreased the availability of water resources
● Research and development of desalination technologies are becoming highly
important because of the rapid increase in freshwater demand.
Desalination to bridge the supply and
demand
● Desalination has increased to supply water scarcity, however it is energy intensive
and produces brine as a byproduct.
● Fossil fuels with its greenhouse gas emissions and the increasing cost has made the
technology not as cost effective, however the need for water is .
● Renewable energy implementation, with its declining cost and exponentially less
environmental impact has become of higher interest
● Cost depends on location and its renewable resources access.
Next steps
● Further advances in desalination technology
as well as in renewable energy technology to
reduce cost and increase feasibility.
● Environmental impact assessment of brine byproduct
● Create conscious awareness for preservation of water, reduce its use, recycle when
possible
 References
Abdelkareem, M., El Haj Assad, M., Sayed, E. and Soudan, B. (2018). Recent progress in the use of renewable energy sources to power
water desalination plants. Desalination, 435, pp.97-113.
Al-Jabr, A. and Ben-Mansour, R. (2018). Optimum selection of renewable energy powered desalination systems. Proceedings of the 3rd
EWaS International Conference on Insights on the Water-Energy-Food Nexus, 2(612).
Alkaisi, A., Mossad, R., and Sharifian-Barforoush, A. (2017). A review of the water desalination systems integrated with renewable
energy. Energy Procedia, 110, pp.268-274.
Azevedo, F.D.A.S.M (2014). Renewable energy powered desalination systems: technologies and market analysis (Masters thesis).
Universidade de Lisboa. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/b9cf/1d022cdbd607a1339ece2e694ea2a096eea3.pdf
Isaka, M. (2013). Water desalination using renewable energy (Technology Policy Brief I12). Retrieved from
https://iea-etsap.org/E-TechDS/PDF/I12IR_Desalin_MI_Jan2013_final_GSOK.pdf.
Mollahosseini, A., Abdelrasoul, A., Sheibany, S., Amini, M., and Khoshhal Salestan, S. (2019). Renewable energy-driven desalination
opportunities - A case study. Journal of Environmental Management, 239, pp.187-197.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (1997). Overview of village scale, renewable energy powered desalination. Golden, CO: Karen
Thomas.
Shahabi, M., McHugh, A., Anda, M., Ho, G. (2013). Environmental life cycle assessment of seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant
powered by renewable energy. Renewable Energy, 67, pp.53-58.