Economics and Energy Consumption of Brackish Water Reverse Osmosis Desalination: Innovations and Impacts of Feedwater Quality

Abstract

Brackish water desalination, using the reverse osmosis (BWRO) process, has become common in global regions, where vast reserves of brackish groundwater are found (e.g., the United States, North Africa). A literature survey and detailed analyses of several BWRO facilities in Florida have revealed some interesting and valuable information on the costs and energy use. Depending on the capacity, water quality, and additional scope items, the capital cost (CAPEX) ranges from USD 500 to USD 2947/m3 of the capacity (USD 690–USD 4067/m3 corrected for inflation to 2020). The highest number was associated with the City of Cape Coral North Plant, Florida, which had an expanded project scope. The general range of the operating cost (OPEX) is USD 0.39 to USD 0.66/m3 (cannot be corrected for inflation), for a range of capacities from 10,000 to 70,000 m3/d. The feed-water quality, in the range of 2000 to 6000 mg/L of the total dissolved solids, does not significantly impact the OPEX. There is a significant scaling trend, with OPEX cost reducing as plant capacity increases, but there is considerable scatter based on the pre- and post-treatment complexity. Many BWRO facilities operate with long-term increases in the salinity of the feedwater (groundwater), caused by pumping-induced vertical and horizontal migration of the higher salinity water. Any cost and energy increase that is caused by the higher feed water salinity, can be significantly mitigated by using energy recovery, which is not commonly used in BWRO operations. OPEX in BWRO systems is likely to remain relatively constant, based on the limitation on the plant capacity, caused by the brackish water availability at a given site. Seawater reverse osmosis facilities, with a very large capacity, have a lower OPEX compared to the upper range of BWRO, because of capacity scaling, special electrical energy deals, and process design certainty.

Reverse Osmosis Membrane Zero Liquid Discharge for Agriculture Drainage Water Desalination: Technical, Economic, and Environmental Assessment

“…The published range for the unit cost for brackish water RO desalination for 10,000 to 70,000 m 3 /d capacities and 2000–6000 mg/L are 0.39–0.66 USD/m 3 [ 15 , 16 ]. It is worth mentioning that using electrodialysis for brackish water desalination may be lower by 5–33% according to the capacity (Generous et al, 2021).…”

Acrylate and Methacrylate Polymers’ Applications: Second Life with Inexpensive and Sustainable Recycling Approaches

“…Conventional technologies of water treatment (such as sedimentation, adsorption and filtration) simply transfer the contaminants from one medium to another one, without destroying the pollutants. Unfortunately, some of these methodologies (such as reverse osmosis) have high operating and energetic costs [ 61 ]. Heterogeneous photocatalysis is one of the emergent and innovative methods for wastewater treatment.…”

Phosphorus Concentration in Water Affects the Biofilm Community and the Produced Amount of Extracellular Polymeric Substances in Reverse Osmosis Membrane Systems

“…The tap water was produced through seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology desalination plant (Thuwal, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia). Previous studies have shown that the tap water used for this experiment is suitable for biofilm studies [10,[34][35][36]. The tap water elemental composition can be found in Table S1 of the Supplementary Material.…”