Abstract
Desalination applications based on reverse osmosis (RO) technology today comprise over 50% of the capacity of all desalination systems worldwide and represent 75-85% of new desalination projects being implemented. The major reason for the shift in desalination projects to RO technology is the high energy efficiency of the RO process. There are three major application categories of large capacity, RO-based desalination projects: brackish RO; advanced municipal wastewater reclamation; and seawater RO. In the two first categories (brackish RO and wastewater reclamation), the systems’ configuration and equipment components are well defined. Therefore, project costs and operating expenses are fairly predictable. In seawater RO desalination systems, the RO process configuration is also very similar; however, some variability exists regarding the configuration of seawater water delivery and feed water pretreatment. The rest of the system’s components and system operation methods are very uniform. However, an evaluation of published cost data of medium- to large-scale water RO desalination projects illustrates significant variability in costs of desalination systems. This paper will analyze current economic conditions of seawater desalination, and highlight the limitations and possibilities of additional improvements of the economics of the SWRO desalination process.
Highlights
The variability in the desalination systems process is especially noticeable among reverse osmosis (RO) seawater desalination systems built at different geographic locations
The existence of such a great difference is very noticeable, considering that the desalination process, plant configuration and construction materials of seawater RO (SWRO) equipment are quite similar for the majority of plants
All new SWRO desalination systems utilize similar types of high-pressure pumps and energy recovery devices, which brings energy usage to a similar range of [3,4] KWh/m3. This suggests that the difference in economics of SWRO desalination projects is the result of localized factors such as local labor rates, cost of construction materials and site-specific environmental regulations
Summary
The variability in the desalination systems process is especially noticeable among RO seawater desalination systems built at different geographic locations. The difference in product water cost produced by plants of a similar capacity but located in different countries can exceed 100% The existence of such a great difference is very noticeable, considering that the desalination process, plant configuration and construction materials of seawater RO (SWRO) equipment are quite similar for the majority of plants. All new SWRO desalination systems utilize similar types of high-pressure pumps and energy recovery devices, which brings energy usage to a similar range of [3,4] KWh/m3 This suggests that the difference in economics of SWRO desalination projects is the result of localized factors such as local labor rates, cost of construction materials and site-specific environmental regulations. This paper concentrates on current membrane desalination processes, in particular, the reverse osmosis process
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