Abstract
Reverse osmosis is the leading technology for desalination of brackish water and seawater, important for solving the growing problems of fresh water supply. Thermal technologies such as multi-effect distillation and multi-stage flash distillation still comprise an important portion of the world’s desalination capacity. They consume substantial amounts of energy, generally obtained from fossil fuels, due to their low efficiency. Hybridization is a strategy that seeks to reduce the weaknesses and enhance the advantages of each element that makes it up. This paper introduces a review of the most recent publications on hybridizations between reverse osmosis and thermal desalination technologies, as well as their integration with renewable energies as a requirement to decarbonize desalination processes. Different configurations provide improvements in key elements of the system to reduce energy consumption, brine production, and contamination, while improving product quality and production rate. A combination of renewable sources and use of energy and water storage systems allow for improving the reliability of hybrid systems.
Highlights
About 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered by water, just 2.5% is fresh water [1], and it is estimated that only 1% of this is accessible [2]. 40% of the world population currently lives in arid areas or islands where fresh water is scarce [3]
The results showed that, when comparing this hybrid system with the original Reverse Osmosis (RO) system, it is possible to reduce the specific energy consumption for the same effluent salt concentration
Desalination of sea and brackish water has shown a significant increase in recent decades because of the rise in demand for fresh water, driven both by population and economic growth, as well as by deterioration of conventional water sources
Summary
About 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered by water, just 2.5% is fresh water [1], and it is estimated that only 1% of this is accessible [2]. 40% of the world population currently lives in arid areas or islands where fresh water is scarce [3]. Reverse osmosis (RO) is the dominant technology [16] in membrane processes, while multi-effect desalination (MED) covers 7% of the installed capacity, and multistage flash systems (MSF) cover 18%, being the most used technology in large-scale dual-purpose desalination plants (water and electricity). RO technologies are more used at the middle and small scale in single process plants (fresh water production) [9], being the ones with the highest participation with 69% of the installed capacity in the world. Other membrane technologies such as nano filtration (NF) contribute 3% to desalination, while electrodialysis (ED) 2%, and reverse electrodialysis (EDR) 1% [18]. Recent improvements in flow devices and energy recovery, along with advances in materials for membranes, hybridization with other desalination technologies, as well as its integration with renewable energies, and optimization with artificial intelligence, are some of the most relevant aspects introduced in this document
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