INNOVATIVE AND DEVELOPMENTAL DESALINATION TECHNOLOGIES. WHERE ARE WE NOW?

摘要

Despite the advances in desalination technology in the past two decades and wide acceptance ofconventional membrane and thermal desalination technologies for treating various source waters,concerns associated with cost, energy consumption, and environmental impacts (such asimpingement and entrainment, concentrate discharges, greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions) arelimiting their implementation in various treatment applications. For example equivalent thermalenergy requirement for desalinating seawater via reverse osmosis (RO), multiple effectdistillation (MED)and multiple stage flush (MSF) are approximately 15, 75 and 100 kWh/m3.Despite recent advances in RO membrane material and use of state of art pretreatment strategies,the recovery of a typical seawater RO system is around 50%. To address one or more of theconcerns mentioned above, numerous research studies have been conducted to develop lowcarbon foot-print technologies and technologies that increase recovery, use renewable energy andlow grade waste heat to desalinate wastewater. The majority of these technologies have beendeveloped for brackish water or seawater desalination; the same technologies can also beapplicable to wastewater if proper pretreatment is provided. This paper will summarizeapplication area(s), where and when the technologies have been tested or implemented (ifapplicable), testing results, state of development, and discuss implementability potential of thesetechnologies in next 5 years.