The costs and benefits of desalination 157 box 61 costs of conservation economists use a variety of methods to compare the relative costs of water supply and management alternatives, including cost effectiveness, marginal costs. Cheaper, energy efficient ways to desalinate water mit. There are two major types of desalination technologies around the world, namely membrane desalination and thermal desalination. Growth patterns of the commonly used desalination technologies.
A typical largescale desalination plant produces 100,000 cubic meters of water. There are two ways to think about the cost of desalination. Energy footprint of water desalination university of twente. Table 1 summarizes the various desalination plants investment costs msf, vte2, med, swro for seawater and ed and ro for brackish water. With capacities ranging from 600 to 25,000 m 3 day per unit, the med units produce a reliable, low cost stream of high purity water. Seawater desalination has become affordable and droughtproof water supply alternative for many urban coastal centers worldwide as a result of dramatic advances in reverse osmosis membrane.
The present analysis concludes that further reduction to ro desalination cost is less likely to arise from the development of membranes with higher permeability than the current generation, but is. Pdf seawater desalinationcosts and technology trends. Sea water desalination in the emirate of abu dhabi. Estimating the cost of brackish groundwater desalination. A typical large scale desalination plant produces 100,000 cubic meters of water per day. To date, the average cost of desalted water using msf has been reduced to about 0. Life cycle cost, also called unit production cost or annualized cost, is the cost of producing a thousand gallons or cubic meter of water by desalination and considers all capex including debt servicing and opex, and may be adjusted by a predicted or actual plant operating factor. Therefore, desalinated water must be conditioned remineralized prior to. One of the most sensitive and critical aspects of any water project is cost. Table 1 seawater desalination contracted water cost. Desalination ships high investment cost and high operational costs onsite desalination high operational costs due to fuel costs, reliance on larger island or mainland for fuel supply renewable energy desalination can be a practical solution water.
Humidificationdehumidification hdh is a thermal desalination technology that imitates natures rain cycle. Together, these account for over 81% of the total desalination cost 7, 8. The cost of desalination process depends upon several factors namely. One way to resolve water shortage is desalination which expend energy to derive fresh water from the vast amount of saline water. For example, brackish water desalination can be cost effective while seawater desalination is both energy intensive and cost. Seawater desalination technologies research office legislative council secretariat fs071415 1. Once operational, plants require huge amounts of energy. Desalinated water pub, singapores national water agency. Cost estimates seem to be very much site specific and the cost per cubic metre ranges from installation to installation. By 2025, about twothirds of the world population may suffer from high or moderate water shortages. The costs will be significantly affected by the energy source and the source water characteristics. The solar desalination funding program will explore novel technologies that use solarthermal energy to assist in creating freshwater from otherwise unusable waters like seawater, brackish water, and contaminated water. During world war ii, it was felt that desalination technology desalting as it was called then should be developed to convert saline water into usable water, where fresh water.
Summary of results the capital cost of desalination. Seawater desalination offers a promising option for the supply of potable water. Two more desalination plants will be ready by 2020. Currently, we have three desalination plants with a combined capacity of mgd that can meet up to 30% of singapores current water demand. Design of reverse osmosis desalination plant in suez city. Desalinated water is expected to meet up to 30% of singapores future water. The findings in table 1 indicate that cogeneration with ro costs 10% less fuel. Construction costs and energy use for swro desalination vary in. Estimation of desalinated seawater cost and energy consumption for.
Its basic components are a humidifier, a dehumidifier, and a heater. Brackish water desalination energy and cost considerations jeremy martin, energy recovery inc. Many desalination plants built recently have greater desalinated water delivery costs caused by special circumstances, such as plant remediation or upgrades. But with global demand for fresh water growing exponentially but less than 0. Sponsored by the european desalination society and center for research and. For example, brackish water desalination can be cost effective while seawater desalination is both energy intensive and cost intensive as illustrated in table 4. Examining the economics of seawater desalination using the. When it goes through the filtration steps necessary to remove the extra sodium from the liquid, the water. We need to think about new ways to make clean water. This includes the cost to convey desalinated water. Water shortage is an important issue facing the world today. Drinking water guidelines cover a broad spectrum of contaminants from inorganic and synthetic organic chemicals, disinfection byproducts, microbial indicators and radionuclides.
Desalination guidelines development for drinking water. Many studies of water desalination costs appear regularly in water desalination and renewable energy related publications. Water and waste water treatment technologies multieffect distillationmed raphael semiat encyclopedia of life support systems eolss 2. Desalination and water safety plans as with any drinking water supply, the development of a wsp is an essential first step in the provision of safe drinking water. Ides med units are the industrys most reliable, robust and cost efficient seawater desalination solutions. In the humidifier, air is humidified through direct contact with salty water. It is very costly to build and operate desalination plants. It has been estimated that, by the 2020s, without some action nearly half of water resource zones in england could be at risk of deficit during a. Cost of brackish groundwater desalination in texas 1206 september 2012 jorge arroyo and saqib shirazi innovative water technologies texas water development board purpose of paper to provide sample water production costs of brackish groundwater desalination in texas. With this evolution, desalination technology has matured, while production and operating costs have dropped, water quality parameters have improved and energy costs which represent the largest part of the cost. However, high desalination costs and high prices for desalinated water twice or three times higher than those from traditional water sources have been hindering an uptake and the development of desalination in many countries. Factors that affect the cost of desalination include.
Water scarcity is viewed as the top global risk for the next decade. Ronan mcgovern, phd in desalination from mit updated 20 may 2015 there are two ways to think about the cost of desalination. Economic analysis of desalination technologies in the. The role of desalination in an increasingly waterscarce world. Introduction product water from desalination plants is characteristically low in mineral content, hardness, alkalinity, and ph. These advances in technology have resulted in a sharp decline in the total water cost of desalinated water. Improvements to thermal desalination technologies and low cost.
They are aimed at typical drinking water sources and technologies. Comparison of energy consumption of different desalination methods. However, due to lower energy requirements, a desalination process called reverse osmosis ro2 now appears to have a slightly lower cost than distillation for seawater desalination unless a dual purpose electric power desalination plant is being built. Their majesties and highnesses, the gcc leaders, pay great attention to the water issue due to water. Due to the increasing demands of fresh water in deserted and remote areas, the development of nonconventional water resources in egypt is.
Seawater desalination, in fact, is one of the most expensive sources of fresh water. A levelized cost analysis for solarenergypowered sea water. In the dehumidifier, hot moist air is put in indirect contact with cold salty water. During world war ii, it was felt that desalination technology desalting as it was called then should be developed to convert saline water into usable water, where fresh water supplies were limited. Desalination costs decrease with increasing capacity in general. Desalination has proven to be a reliable and efficient water supply option in many countries, especially in times of water scarcity. An economic assessment of the global potential for. Similarly, it is known that for thermally driven desalination processes msf and med, the capital cost of the large metallic evaporators is very high, in the range of 40% to 50% of the total cost of water.
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