Analysis of Boujdour desalination plant performance

Methods and designs for a modular waste processing system that will utilize an anaerobic process to produce hydrogen from food, animal, or human waste are being developed by this ongoing research effort. This hydrogen will be used to produce electricity in a reciprocating engine or fuel cell. A solar energy system has been designed and tested to provide heat for pre and post processing of waste and production of potable water. Potentially harmful pathogens from the waste are isolated from the environment and are drastically reduced by a thermal process. It is anticipated that this combined waste processing and renewable energy unit would be constructed in a standard shipping container for use in undeveloped and/or remote locations or at disaster sites. Hydrogen has many well established advantages as a clean renewable energy source. The use of microbial organisms to produce hydrogen has many advantages over more conventional techniques. Remote locations place a premium on the availability of electricity, heat, and potable water. Methane production by biological means is often used for producing electricity. Using microorganisms that produce hydrogen rather than methane significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions for the overall process. By using this hydrogen in a reciprocating engine or fuel cell the major end products would be electricity, water, and heat. To produce hydrogen rather than methane an aerobically it is necessary to first thermally pretreat the feed material. The developed solar energy system has consistently produced temperatures above 115°C. Typical hydrogen concentrations produced in the fermentation using food waste are 22% after 48 hours. Current efforts include use of a statistical experimental design to determine optimal operating parameters and a preliminary modular energy system design. The next steps in this effort will involve research and development of a bench-top prototype system and subsequently development and testing of a full scale prototype unit.

Towards a worldwide sustainable and simultaneous large-scale production of renewable energy and potable water through salinity gradient power by combining reversed electrodialysis and solar power?

Potable water production via desalination technique using solar still integrated with partial cooling coil condenser

Purpose Chemicals produced via chlor-alkali electrolysis are widely used throughout the water industry worldwide, with treatment chemicals often the second largest source of environmental impacts from potable water production after electricity use. Population-driven increases in the future demand for potable water will require concomitant increases in the production of water treatment chemicals, with the associated environmental impacts of chemicals production primarily arising from the additional demand for electricity. Due to the dominance of electricity in the environmental performance of chlor-alkali chemicals, assessment of the future environmental impacts of potable water production is largely dependent on proper identification of the marginal source of electricity. In this paper, we present a consequential cradle-to-gate carbon footprint (cCF) for the most widely used chlor-alkali-produced disinfectant (sodium hypochlorite (13 % w/w)) and coagulant (ferric chloride (42 % w/w)) in Australia, with special emphasis placed upon the identification of future marginal electricity supply and the substitution of hydrogen gas and sodium hydroxide during production. While this analysis is presented in an Australian context, commonalities in potable water and chlor-alkali chemical production processes internationally give the findings a broader relevance.

Life cycle assessment of reverse osmosis for high-salinity seawater desalination process: Potable and industrial water production

An Integrated Photocatalytic and Photothermal Process for Solar‐Driven Efficient Purification of Complex Contaminated Water

A feasibility study of a small-scale photovoltaic-powered reverse osmosis desalination plant for potable water and salt production in Madura Island: A techno-economic evaluation

Dual-technology power plant as a potential solution for the clean water and electricity productions: Eritrea case study

Objective: To analyze the epidemiological characteristics of human brucellosis in northern and southern areas of China, and to develop national strategies for brucellosis prevention and control. Methods: Individual data on human brucellosis was collected from the National Notifiable Infectious Disease Reporting Information System to describe the situation of brucellosis in China during 2015-2016. Epidemiological features of the disease in northern and southern areas of China were analyzed. Results: A total of 104 125 cases were reported in mainland China during 2015-2016, with an average incidence rate as 3.81/100 000. The overall incidence rate from the northern provinces was 7.77/100 000 in 2016, a 18.6% decrease from 2015 (9.55/100 000), whereas the incidence rate in the southern provinces was 0.27/100 000 in 2016, with an increase of 28.6% than 0.21/100 000 in 2015. 90.0% of the newly infected counties mainly distributed in southern China. As for the locations of reporting cases, most of them were in the same counties in the northern areas (52.3%) while most cases in the southern areas (59.6%) were imported from other counties. The median age of the cases was 48 (IQR: 38-58) years, with male-to-female ratios as 2.7∶1 in the north and 2.2∶1 in the south. Majority of the cases were occupation-related, from both the northern (86.8%) and southern (62.7%) areas. Human brucellosis occurred every month throughout the year but with an obvious seasonal increase between March and July. Conclusions: Different epidemiological features of human brucellosis appeared in both northern and southern areas of China. The disease was seen endemic in the northern and dispersal in the southern provinces. Appropriate strategies for brucellosis prevention and control should be developed, according to the different epidemiological characteristics in the northern or southern areas.

The Sultanate of Oman lies in an arid region where fresh water sources are scarce. Economic and population growth spur the need for more housing, schools, roads, and many other civil works. In the construction of such projects, water is needed as a component in concrete mixing. Contractors in arid regions are sometimes faced with the problem of finding water of acceptable quality for their construction work. However, plenty of production water (oily and brackish water) is produced in the oil fields during oil production. In 2002, Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) produced an estimated 130,000 m3/day of crude oil with a corresponding 630,000 m3/day of production water, most of which are disposed of via deep well injection. This research project was initiated as a possible option for the use of production water as part of PDO’s policy on sustainable development, materials efficiency, and waste reduction. The main objective of this paper is to present the results obtained on the use of production (oily) and brackish water in concrete mixtures. Water samples were obtained from four PDO asset areas. Nine water samples, including a controlled potable (tap) water, were analysed for pH, total dissolved solids (TDS), chloride, hardness, alkalinity, and sulphates. In addition, cement pastes and mortars and plain concrete mixtures were prepared using 100% substitution of potable water. Nine mixtures were prepared and cured for up to one and a half years. Mixtures were tested for initial setting times, compressive strength and flexural strength. Research results indicate that there was a small decrease in the initial setting times for all cement paste mixtures prepared using production and brackish water in comparison with potable water. However, such values still exceeded the minimum 45 minutes initial setting requirement as set forth in ASTM C150. The use of PDO’s production and brackish water did not cause any decrease in the compressive or flexural strength measurements of cement mortars or concrete mixtures in comparison with potable water. In general, there was no strength reversal with longer curing periods. However, for most concrete mixtures the strength tends to level off after three months of curing. Most production water mixtures resulted in higher strength measurements than those prepared using potable water. Further testing is necessary to investigate corrosion potential in reinforced concrete.

Desalination of brackish water by nanofiltration and reverse osmosis

The environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology was used in this study to calculate and compare the environmental burdens resulting from two different methods employed in the production of potable water in South Africa. One method employs conventional processes for the treatment of water and the other one is based on membrane filtration. All inputs (raw materials and energy) and outputs (products, by-products and emissions to air, water and soil) from the two methods were listed and quantified. These inputs and outputs cause different environmental impacts (global warming, ozone depletion, smog formation, acidification, nutrient enrichment, ecotoxicity and human toxicity) and the contribution of each method to each of these impact categories has been quantified, resulting in a score. The ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation) methodological framework for life cycle assessments guided this study. By using these methodologies and by tracing all the processes involved in the production of potable water to the interface with the environment, it was found that the main contributor to the overall environmental burden is the generation of electricity. This conclusion is valid for both methods investigated and in order to increase the environmental performance in the production of potable water the energy efficiency of waterworks should be increased.

Conceptual designs of integrated process for simultaneous production of potable water, electricity, and salt

In the past decades, the demand for potable and usable water has been on a continual increase, while its availability has been on an exponential decline. Studies have argued that, by 2050, only a small fraction of the world’s population will have access to clean and safe water, thereby exposing a significant portion of the population to a serious water crisis. Large volumes of wastewater are generated yearly, both domestically and industrially, and the necessity to develop effective and efficient strategies and technologies to recover these wastewaters and turn them into safe and reusable waters is a momentous concern among scientists and policymakers. Across the globe, governments are developing approaches and strategies to mitigate both short- and long-term water challenges resulting from various anthropogenic activities that have contributed to the rising degradation of water quality, coupled with the attendant negative impact of natural disasters, increasing urbanization, among others. Notwithstanding, the advancements in nanotechnology have made it possible to engineer novel and innovative polymer-based materials and composites that possess desirable and even predictable properties for targeted applications, which has presented the opportunity for the development of cost-effective nanotechnologies and processes employed in water remediation, reclamation, purification, and treatment processes worldwide. Nevertheless, these innovative technologies and processes have also been shown to have their limitations and challenges in the enhancement of water quality. Herein we survey the current advancement of selected polymer-based membranes and composites and their intervention for the production of safe, potable, and usable water, as well as their limitations, challenges, recommendations, and future perspectives.

In this study, a new proposed multi-generation system as a promising integrated energy conversion system is studied, and its performance is investigated thermodynamically. The system equipped with parabolic trough collectors and biomass combustor to generate electricity, heating and cooling loads, hydrogen and potable water. A double effect absorption chiller to provide cooling demand, a proton exchange membrane electrolyzer to split water into hydrogen and oxygen and a multi-effect desalination system to provide potable water by recovering the waste heat of biomass combustion is combined with a steam Rankine cycle. The results of the thermodynamic analysis indicate that thermal efficiency of 82.5% and exergy efficiency of 14.6% is achievable for the proposed system. Hydrogen and potable water production rates are 88.1 kg/h and 3.9 m3/h, respectively. The proposed system generates 26.3 MW electricity, 26.3 MW heating load, and 137.2 MW cooling load. Parabolic trough solar collector, double effect absorption chiller and biomass combustor are the primary sources of thermodynamic irreversibilities in comparison to other components. The mass flow rate of biomass fed to the system and aperture area of parabolic trough solar collector is calculated to be 6.2 ton/h and 188,000 m2. Besides conventional analyses, to conclude the concept of multiplicity six different cases for the studied multi-generation system are modeled and evaluated regarding thermal and exergy efficiencies. Finally, the parametric study is performed to identify the consequential parameters on the thermodynamic performance of the system.