Geospatial analysis of desalination in the US – An interactive tool for socio-economic evaluations and decision support

Abstract

In the United States, desalination has considerably expanded since the 1950s, reaching a daily production capacity of 2 BGD (billion gallons per day) with around 1,336 operating plants as of 2013 (GWI, 2013). Despite this continuous growth, a steady increase in desalination investments and growing demand for water, research on geospatial representation of desalination plants and their characteristics over time does not exist or is very limited. This paper aims at filling this gap by developing interactive 5D and 6D geospatial models and a multi-dimensional analysis of desalination trends in the time span 1950-2013. The analysis shows that desalination plants are located mainly on the East and West Coast of the United States, with Florida, California, and Texas leading in the national desalination sector. Despite the geographical proximity to the sea, most of the plants use brackish groundwater due to economic factors related to the desalination process itself and the disposal of the highly saline byproduct-brine. The models can be used both for educational and interdisciplinary research purposes and help with determining socioeconomic viability of establishing prospective desalination plants in different regions in the future. They can also help support decision makers in solving emergency questions related to water shortages and preparing for long-term water scarcity in different US regions.

A Combined Modeling and Experimental Study Assessing the Impact of Fluid Pulsation on Charge and Energy Efficiency in Capacitive Deionization

“…Capacitive deionization (CDI) is increasingly considered as an energy efficient technology for desalination of low salinity systems compared to reverse osmosis and thermal flash desalination. [1][2][3][4][5] The electrosorption process in traditional CDI systems relies on conductive porous electrodes that undergo electrical double layer (EDL) charging when an external electric power source is applied. 3,[5][6][7] In CDI, charge efficiency 8 is an important metric, defined as the moles of salt removed per mole of electronic charge transferred to a given electrode.…”

A survey of analytical methods for inclusion in a new energy-water nexus knowledge discovery framework

“…Finally, to determine energy used for desalination of water, two example analytical tools applied are geospatial visualization (e.g. Ziolkowska & Reyes, 2016) and Multicriteria Decision Making (MCDM) (e.g. Marinia et al, 2017).…”

“…Marinia et al, 2017). Ziolkowska and Reyes (2016) geocoded 1600 desalination plants, each of which includes a complete record for plant capacity, raw water type, user category and plant status. Each desalination plant is shown as a sphere at its geographic coordinates with the year it was built shown as its elevation above the terrain.…”

Prioritizing the Best Potential Regions for Brine Concentration Systems in the USA Using GIS and Multicriteria Decision Analysis

“…Regarding commercial and available technologies, success is evaluated traditionally through optimization of a single criterion (e.g., energy and/or cost). However, the practical feasibility of MLD/ZLD systems at a large scale will also depend on social and geographic criteria, which are often neglected. ,,− Thus, a thorough evaluation of the feasibility of MLD and ZLD facilities requires analyses that can evaluate the performance, cost, and environmental constraints simultaneously. Multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA), which has gained interest as a multidisciplinary decision-making tool for sustainable systems, allows one to take into consideration several criteria at the same time to generate the best decisions and solutions .…”