Feasibility study and assessment of the technical, administrative and financial viability of the Voltano desalination plant (Agrigento, Sicily)

Optimization coupling RO desalination unit to renewable energy by genetic algorithms

This paper proposes the Hybrid desalination and power generation through parabolic trough collectors. This study aims to examine the feasibility, performance optimization, and economic viability of power-generation plant and hybrid-desalination using multi-stage flash (MSF) and reverse osmosis (RO) technologies assessed by using the parabolic trough collectors (PTC). The objective is to discover the posibilities of this innovative approach in addressing water scarcity and clean energy demands. The studies usually focus on several key aspects. Firstly, it resolves the technical feasibility of integrating MSF and RO technologies with parabolic-trough-collectors to optimize energy efficiency and freshwater production. This involves evaluating the system design, heat transfer mechanisms, and operational parameters.Secondly, performance optimization is a key area of investigation. By optimizing these parameters the aim is to maximize freshwater production while minimizing energy consumption. Thirdly, the economic viability of the hybrid plant will be assessed. This involves considering capital investment, conducting a comprehensive cost analysis, maintenance costs, and operational expenses. The study also evaluates the potential for revenue generation through the sale of excess electricity produced by the system. The potential outcomes of this research include demonstrating the technical-feasibility as well as economic-viability of the hybrid desalination and power generation plant. The findings may indicate that this approach can effectively address water scarcity challenges while contributing to clean energy production. The study may also highlight the environmental benefits of integrating renewable energy sources (RESs) and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions compared to traditional desalination methods.The proposed method is executed in MATLAB platform and compared to various existing approaches.

During the last decade, water reuse has been widely recognized in many regions of the world. Fouling of ceramic membranes, especially hydraulically irreversible fouling, is a critical aspect affecting the operational cost and energy consumption in water treatment plants. In addition, the reverse osmosis (RO) membranes, that are often used for water reuse plant, frequently face the problem of bio-fouling. The main objective of this thesis is to develop innovative applications of the ceramic ultra- and nanofiltration membranes for water reuse purpose. Improving RO pre-treatment using tight ceramic UF or ceramic NF To prevent the biofouling often relies on pre-treatment technology, since frequent chemical cleaning does not only increase the operational cost but also destructs the polyamide skin layer of RO membrane. A good RO pre-treatment should aim at both particulate removal to release clogging in the module, and organic carbon or nutrient limitation to release biofouling in the RO. Intense pre-treatment has been applied to alleviate the biofouling in RO membranes during wastewater reclamation. Whereas, current filtration-based pre-treatment processes cannot adequately prevent biofouling due to their poor removal of nutrients and organic carbon from feed water. The tight ceramic UF and ceramic NF membranes can potentially be deployed for RO pre-treatment in order to constrain the biofouling in RO by removing the organic carbon and phosphate (as nutrient). Theoretical research on the phosphate rejection by the charged tight ceramic UF was conducted, and the results have emphasized the importance of electrostatic interactions between the negatively charged membrane and the phosphate. The results indicate that the rejection of phosphate is dependent on the pH of the solutions and the results can be interpreted by Donnan exclusion and formation of an electrical double layer in the membrane pores. The greater phosphate rejection due to electrostatic repulsion results from a stronger overlapping of the electrical double layers in membrane pores. A Debye ratio (ratio of the Debye length to the pore radius) can be used to evaluate double layer overlapping in tight UF membranes. However, the membrane fouling caused by organic matter and cations can potentially influence the phosphate rejection by the tight ceramic UF. The phosphate rejection appeared to be linearly correlated to the surface charge of the organics in the feed waters. In addition, the biopolymers in WWTP effluent water organic matter (EfOM) can adsorb phosphate with the bridging of multivalent cations, which leads to higher phosphate rejection by the EfOM-fouled membranes than humics-fouled membranes. Sewer mining using ceramic nanofiltration Ceramic NF can be used for direct municipal sewage filtration aiming at energy, fresh water and nutrient recovery, so called sewer mining. Over 80% of organic carbon substrates and 90% of dissolved phosphate were rejected by a ceramic NF membrane (450 Da), but only 10% for ammonia. Concentration of the municipal sewage using ceramic NF increases the efficiency in the energy and nutrient recovery during the anaerobic digestion. The fouling on the ceramic NF membranes during sewage filtration can be suppressed by chemical cleaning with NaClO (0.1%) and HCl (0.1 mol L-1), while the cleaning of polymeric NF membranes is reportedly far more difficult. As such, sewer mining with ceramic NF is believed as an innovative and viable technology for energy, fresh water and nutrient recovery.

3.16 - Solar Desalination

Design and optimization of desalination reverse osmosis plants driven by renewable energies using genetic algorithms

Enabling the use of seawater for hydrogen gas production in water electrolyzers

The development strategy within the regulations on Spatial and Regional Planning (Bahasa Indonesia: Rencana Tata Ruang dan Wilayah - RTRW) intersects with social, cultural, and environmental conditions. One impact is the conversion of agricultural land, plantations and forestry into industrial and residential areas. In the context of Banten Province, the regional regulation on Spatial and Regional Planning (Bahasa Indonesia: Peraturan Daerah Rencana Tata Ruang dan Wilayah - Perda RTRW) is considered to have played a major role in the conversion of agricultural land on a large scale in several regions in Banten Province. This study aimed to determine the impact of spatial and regional planning policies in Banten Province on efforts to protect sustainable food agricultural land (Bahasa Indonesia: Lahan Pertanian Pangan Berkelanjutan – LP2B), which is a national priority. The impact evaluation methodology was used to compare the condition of agricultural land before and after the implementation of this regional and spatial planning regulation. This study found a lack of strong commitment to the protection of LP2B, and that the conversion of agricultural land into industrial and residential areas largely occurred in areas that were included in the regional regulation as agricultural designation areas.
 Keywords: policy impact, spatial and regional planning (RTRW), land conversion

The high penetration of renewable energy sources (RESs) in modern power systems poses two conflicting issues. First one is the reduction in the operation costs resulted from RESs utilization instead of the expensive fossil fuel thermal generating units. However, the RESs are characterized by its uncertain and intermittent behavior that their output power is not dispatchable and not known exactly due to forecast errors. Therefore, reserves are scheduled in the day-ahead market to meet the uncertain supply from RESs which add some costs to the system. The decision maker should be aware of those two conflicting objectives in order to operate the system in the optimal way with minimum operation costs. The problem of the market clearing is formulated as Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) problem using GAMS software. It is considered a two stage stochastic programming with the objective of minimizing the expected total operation energy and reserve costs while satisfying the various operational constraints. The results show the effectiveness of the RESs integration in different cases with the consideration of load shedding, RESs curtailment and transmission congestion. As shown from the results, when the network is congested, the operation costs are increased due to the load shedding and RESs curtailment events occur. Moreover, scheduled reserves are increased to face the uncertainty of RESs. As the RESs power penetration increases with no network congestion, a decreasing trend in the operation cost can be seen. However, this trend is less marked as the uncertainty of RESs generation increases. For the network congested case, the reduction rate of the operation cost is decreased for increasing RESs power penetration levels.

Water shortage is one of the biggest defiances in the world. Desalination becomes an essential strategy to secure fresh water. Reverse osmosis (RO) prevails the desalination market worldwide in terms of installed numbers and revenue. The fossil fuel‐powered desalination process has harmful environmental impacts and is expensive. Renewable and abundant energy sources are an auspicious substitutional for powering the RO process. This review focuses on the RO process, its classifications, challenges (including membrane fouling and large‐scale issues), integration of RO with other desalination processes, and integration with energy recovery devices (ERDs). Hybridization of RO with various renewable energy sources (RESs), focusing on solar, wind, and ocean energy, is also demonstrated, and a cost comparison between the different systems is presented. Environmental impacts and assessment of different RO systems, as well as the design of renewable power systems to operate seawater RO (SWRO) desalination systems using hybrid optimization model for electrical renewable (HOMER) software, were discussed.

Fluorescence spectrum-based biofouling prediction method for RO membrane systems

Reverse osmosis is efficiently used for producing drinking water from groundwater sources containing dissolved impurities, including fluoride, ammonia, lithium, strontium, boron, arsenic, etc. The principal problems of utilizing reverse osmosis include scaling on membrane surfaces, concentrate discharges, and low permeate TDS that often require conditioning. The main goal of this work was to demonstrate the viability of a newly developed methodology that relies on low-rejection nanofiltration membranes to improve product water quality by increasing its TDS and calcium content, and its economic efficiency compared to conventionally used reverse osmosis. Disadvantages of employing reverse osmosis for the production of drinking water are attributed to the fact that several pollutants (including lithium, ammonia, and boron) are monovalent ions and, as such, are poorly rejected by membranes as compared to calcium, sodium, sulfate, and chloride ions. Thus, in cases in which lithium or ammonia are present in high concentrations, high rejection membranes are usually used that result in low TDS of the product water. This article presents the results of research aimed at developing a new approach to changing the ratio of monovalent and divalent ions in product water. The new method described in this paper relies on low rejection membranes in a two-stage application that enables us to reduce monovalent impurities and increase the concentration of calcium and TDS values in product water while leaving lithium concentration unchanged. This is achieved by applying a two-stage scheme with low-rejection membranes instead of the reverse osmosis stage. The two-stage treatment using nanofiltration membranes results in the same rejection of lithium and product water quality as reverse osmosis. However, the ratio value of calcium and lithium concentrations in the concentrate of nanofiltration membranes appears to be significantly higher compared with the ratio measured in the feed groundwater. This can be attributed to different rejections of these ions by membranes. Therefore, concentration (reduction of volume) of the feed water with nanofiltration membranes and further dilution of the concentrate with deionized water produce the same concentration of lithium and are associated with an increase of 2–4 times the concentration of calcium. Treatment of this water in the second nanofiltration membrane stage produces drinking-quality water with the required lithium content and increased calcium concentration. We focus on the real-world example of groundwater treatment in Yakutia, Russia, an area where lithium concentration exceeds drinking standards by 24 times. The paper presents a technique of ion separation and demonstrates experimental results that provide lithium removal while increasing the calcium concentration and TDS value. The resulting concentrations are 2–5 times lower than those obtained via conventional use of reverse osmosis membranes. A series of experiments were conducted to remove lithium from groundwater and demonstrate the efficiency of the newly developed method of ion separation. Experimental results of the concentration of obtained values of lithium, calcium, and TDS in permeate and concentrate flows at each membrane stage demonstrate that they provide separation of monovalent and divalent ions and increase product water TDS without increasing lithium. This experimental approach increases calcium and TDS values in product water by 2–4 times compared with the use of reverse osmosis membranes. Calculations of operational costs for different options (the use of reverse osmosis, two-stage nanofiltration, and ion separation in a two-stage approach) are presented. These results confirm the economic advantage of nanofiltration membrane applications to remove lithium as compared to the use of high-rejection reverse osmosis membranes. The increase in product water TDS facilitates the further reduction of concentrate flow rate and operational costs. The economic comparison involved the calculation of the required membrane area and number of membrane elements at each stage, calcium carbonate scaling rates, reagent consumption to prevent scaling, and amounts of concentrate discharged into the sewer. Experimentally obtained results confirmed the feasibility of increasing the calcium concentration and TDS values in product water by 2–5 times while leaving the lithium concentration at the same level. Design characteristics to calculate operational costs for conventional and new options are calculated and demonstrate a sufficient (30–40%) reduction of operational costs compared to conventional use of reverse osmosis. The reduction in reagent consumption is attributed to the utilization of low-rejection nanofiltration membranes that have lower scaling propensities compared with reverse osmosis membranes and a smaller payment for concentrate discharge. The developed approach to using two-stage nanofiltration instead of single-stage reverse osmosis provides multiple advantages that include improved product water quality, lower concentrate consumption, and lower reagent consumption that are attributable to the use of low-rejection membranes. Different case studies are planned to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed techniques to reduce ammonia, fluoride, and boron in drinking water.

Renewable energy sources (RES) are a promising low operating cost solution for utilities. Moreover, RES are environmental attentive solution since, it provides low carbon emissions. However, RES have several associated challenges such as its intermittence nature and the form of generated power. The unpredicted RES output power is a significant challenge for power system schedulers and operators. Many researches have proposed a few solutions to maximize the benefit of utilizing RES in the power network and reduce the negative operational impacts. In this paper, a solution of economic dispatch and unit commitment problem which includes conventional and RES is proposed. The IEEE 14 Bus system is used to model, investigate and validate the proposed solution. Four different scenarios that consider the integration of RES have been evaluated toward the minimum operation cost using a two-stage differential evolution algorithm. The first scenario considers the operation cost of the power system that has only conventional generators. While the second and third scenarios have considered the power system operation costs when replacing one of the conventional generators by photovoltaic (PV) and wind turbine (WT) plants, respectively. The last, scenario is a hybrid case that considers the integration of one PV plant and one WT farm instead of two conventional generators. The study outcomes show that the one-day operation cost of the hybrid scenario is the most expensive one. Whereas the one-day operation cost of the third scenario has the minimum operation cost over all other scenarios.

Hybrid membrane system for desalination and wastewater treatment : Integrating forward osmosis and low pressure reverse osmosis

Operational cost optimization of a full-scale SWRO system under multi-parameter variable conditions

How to supply water and electricity is one of the matters that has remained unchanged in Iran for many years, which costs a lot every year and should be accompanied by changes and technologies occurring in all fields of supply systems. Electricity and water also undergo significant changes. So the role of the smart grid and renewable energy sources will be critical soon, which understanding the smart grid definition. Extraction of electricity and water consumption data for utilizing in this paper through East Azerbaijan Power Distribution Company and Regional Water Company using HOMER software can optimize and safely use renewable energy sources. In the near future, the plan will pay particular attention to the crisis of drought. Due to the geographical isolation of some villages in the northwestern provinces of the country, these areas depend mainly on fossil fuels for their water and energy production. According to the topography of these areas, which are largely far from major population centers, the main aim of this paper is to explore the potential benefits and capabilities of new design, which includes the use of renewable energy parameters including wind turbines, Photovoltaic (PV) cells, Electrolyzer, loads, etc. Using the optimal cost and performance response for the objective function of the problem defines how to supply water and energy for a remote village in the northwest of the country under the climatic conditions of that region with specific renewable energy equipment in HOMER software. In addition, using hydrogen gas and other renewable energy sources in the remote area, an optimized reverse osmosis (RO) system is designed for water production, and in turn, a dual storage system (water and hydrogen) is proposed.