Abstract
The paper provides a critical overview of water desalination using geothermal resources. Specific case studies are presented, as well as an assessment of environmental risks and market potential and barriers to growth. The availability and suitability of low and high temperature geothermal energy in comparison to other renewable energy resources for desalination is also discussed. Analysis will show, for example, that the use of geothermal energy for thermal desalination can be justified only in the presence of cheap geothermal reservoirs or in decentralized applications focusing on small-scale water supplies in coastal regions, provided that society is able and willing to pay for desalting.
Highlights
The economic and industrial potential of geothermal energy as well as its environmental risks have been pointed out in several studies [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]
The aim of this paper is to provide a critical overview of seawater and brackish water desalination using geothermal resources
Mahmoudi et al, [2] in a recent report proposed the application of geothermal sources to power a brackish water greenhouse desalination system for the development of arid and relatively cold regions, using Algeria as a case study (Figure 3a)
Summary
The economic and industrial potential of geothermal energy as well as its environmental risks have been pointed out in several studies [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. An assessment of geothermal resources in the United States has been reported by White and Williams [8] The former USSR produced power (680 kWe) from the first true binary power plant, using 81 °C water at Paratunka on the Kamchatka peninsula, the lowest temperature at that time. It can be argued that an effective integration of these technologies would allow countries to address water shortage problems with a domestic energy source that does not produce air pollution or contribute to the global problem of climate change This approach will help to bypass the problems of rising fuel prices and decreasing fossil fuel supplies. Desalination plants, for example, may be run with geothermal energy being employed directly to heat the saline or brackish water in multiple effect distillation units and/or it could be used indirectly to generate electricity for operating reverse osmosis units [16]. The availability and suitability of geothermal energy in comparison to other renewable energy resources for desalination are discussed
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