The global status of desalination: An assessment of current desalination technologies, plants and capacity

Abstract

This work explores the existing desalination data of over 6 decades (from 1960s to year 2020) to provide an in-depth assessment, via statistical analysis, of the global spread of desalination, current industrial technologies, and current economic indicators, in order to observe possible future expectations. It is observed that the global installed desalination capacity has been increasing steadily at the rate of about 7% per annum since year 2010 to the end of 2019. Extra-large plants are few but they supply most of the global desalination capacity. There is a sharp rise in the desalination capacities of regions that did not really embrace desalination in the past, including Europe and Africa. The power industry remains the largest owner of installed capacity for industrial purposes. Filtration and dissolved air flotation remains the most prominent pretreatment methods. Seawater and Engineering-Procurement-Construction (EPC) model are the most frequently used feed water and plant delivery method, accounting for 57% and 71.7% of global installed capacity, respectively. This assessment also reveals that capital cost accounts for a larger share of the specific cost of water production. The understanding of the trends is useful to make informed choices for the development of future desalination projects and research.