Abstract
Thermal desalination is yet a reliable technology in the treatment of brackish water and seawater; however, its demanding high energy requirements have lagged it compared to other non-thermal technologies such as reverse osmosis. This review provides an outline of the development and trends of the three most commercially used thermal or phase change technologies worldwide: Multi Effect Distillation (MED), Multi Stage Flash (MSF), and Vapor Compression Distillation (VCD). First, state of water stress suffered by regions with little fresh water availability and existing desalination technologies that could become an alternative solution are shown. The most recent studies published for each commercial thermal technology are presented, focusing on optimizing the desalination process, improving efficiencies, and reducing energy demands. Then, an overview of the use of renewable energy and its potential for integration into both commercial and non-commercial desalination systems is shown. Finally, research trends and their orientation towards hybridization of technologies and use of renewable energies as a relevant alternative to the current problems of brackish water desalination are discussed. This reflective and updated review will help researchers to have a detailed state of the art of the subject and to have a starting point for their research, since current advances and trends on thermal desalination are shown.
Highlights
Facultad del Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, Facultad de Ingeniería, Fundación Universidad de América, Bogotá 111321, Colombia; Abstract: Thermal desalination is yet a reliable technology in the treatment of brackish water and seawater; its demanding high energy requirements have lagged it compared to other nonthermal technologies such as reverse osmosis
This paper aims to present a profound literature review of the different commercial This paper aims to present a profound literature review of the different commerphase-change desalination technologies that currently exist and present an overcial phase-change desalination technologies that currently exist and present an view of the use of renewable energy in water desalination systems and their future peroverview of the use of renewable energy in water desalination systems and their future spectives as a contribution to the sustainability of the water resource
Conditions of water stress that currently exist in many populated areas of the planet, and are expected to increase shortly, have led to the optimization of commercial thermal desalination systems and development of new alternative systems that, still in the experimental stage and on a pilot scale, represent the best alternative to face this problem
Summary
Water on the planet is apparently abundant; most of it is salt water, represented as seawater in a high percentage. Both techniques have established that MSF opSimulation models with software include simultaneous solutions of mass, moment, and eration on a large scale in cold regions is cheaper than in warm regions due to energy energy; phase equilibria; and seawater properties as a function of temperature, pressure, savings in water pumping; fact that should be considered in future large-scale desalinaand salinity [104]; even though, vapor temperature is the only factor that has a significant tion plants [103]. Solar energy use by means of PTC makes possible to generate enough energy to achieve high volumes of fresh water in installed MSF plants, with a value of up to USD $2.72 per cubic meter of produced water [125,126], representing an immense potential of alternative energies in optimizing and reducing the operating costs of these thermal desalination systems.
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