Involving integrated seawater desalination-power plants in the optimal design of water distribution networks

Abstract

Water and energy consumption has increased substantially over the last decades. Water scarcity has led to an increase in the extraction of fresh water from aquifers, dams and lakes, and it has produced serious overexploitation problems. Furthermore, the population growth in urbanized areas and the increase in water and energy demands in industry, agriculture and households have amplified this problem. As consequence, there are several regions where is almost impossible to satisfy the water demands using the available water resources. In this context, the use of alternative water resources such as reclaimed water, rainwater harvesting and the potential use of desalinated water can be an option. However, desalinated seawater is very expensive because the high energy consumption, and this way to integrate a seawater desalination plant to a power plant to simultaneously produce clean water and power can be an attractive option. This way, this paper proposes an optimization formulation for synthesizing water networks to satisfy water and energy demands in a macroscopic system involving the use of existing water resources and the installation of integrated seawater desalination-power plants. A case study from Mexico (where satisfying the water demands has become a serious problem) is presented. Results show that the integrated system is able to satisfy the current water demands, the excess desalinated water can be used to recharge the overexploited aquifers and interesting profits can be obtained from the sales of power.