Performance evaluation of BWRO desalination plant — A case study

Arras, Wassila; Ghaffour, Noreddine; Hamou, A.

doi:10.1016/j.desal.2008.02.009

Cited by 64 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…It reveals that different forms of scales were present on the membrane surface mainly, calcium carbonate, barium sulfate and magnesium hydroxide, which are commonly observed in seawater desalination operation [54,[56][57][58][59]. This result suggests that detailed investigation of pretreatment in the MD process is required especially for raw seawater at high temperature.…”

Section: Membrane Characterization After the Dcmd Processmentioning

confidence: 98%

Performance evaluation of the DCMD desalination process under bench scale and large scale module operating conditions

Francis

Ghaffour

Alsaadi

et al. 2014

Journal of Membrane Science

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126

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The flux performance of different hydrophobic microporous flat sheet commercial membranes made of poly tetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and poly propylene (PP) was tested for Red Sea water desalination using the direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) process, under bench scale (high ΔT) and large scale module (low ΔT) operating conditions. Membranes were characterized for their surface morphology, water contact angle, thickness, porosity, pore size and pore size distribution. The DCMD process performance was optimized using a locally designed and fabricated module aiming to maximize the flux at different levels of operating parameters, mainly feed water and coolant inlet temperatures at different temperature difference across the membrane (ΔT). Water vapor flux of 88.8 kg/m 2 h was obtained using a PTFE membrane at high ΔT (60 °C). In addition, the flux performance was compared to the first generation of a new locally synthesized and fabricated membrane made of a different class of polymer under the same conditions. A total salt rejection of 99.99% and boron rejection of 99.41% were achieved under the extreme operating conditions. On the other hand, a detailed water characterization revealed that low molecular weight non-ionic molecules (ppb level) were transported with the water vapor molecules through the membrane structure. The membrane which provided the highest flux was then tested under large scale module operating conditions. The average flux of the latter study (low ΔT) was found to be eight times lower than that of the bench scale (high ΔT) operating conditions.

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Section: Membrane Characterization After the Dcmd Processmentioning

confidence: 98%

Performance evaluation of the DCMD desalination process under bench scale and large scale module operating conditions

Francis

Ghaffour

Alsaadi

et al. 2014

Journal of Membrane Science

Self Cite

126

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…It seems to be obvious the cost of solar desalination cannot be reduced to a comparable range of conventional technologies in the near future. Also, electrical power is subsidized in most of the countries where there is lack of freshwater [1,3,22,198]. This makes water desalination technology unsustainable.…”

Section: Environmental Government Policy Limitations and Costs Consmentioning

confidence: 99%

Renewable energy-driven desalination technologies: A comprehensive review on challenges and potential applications of integrated systems

et al. 2015

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Despite the tremendous improvements in conventional desalination technologies, its wide use is still limited due primarily to high energy requirements which are currently met with expensive fossil fuels. The use of alternative energy sources is essential to meet the growing demand for water desalination. In the last few decades a lot of effort has being directed in the use of different renewable energy (RE) sources to run desalination processes. However, the expansion of these efforts towards larger scale plants is hampered by several techno-economic challenges. Several medium-scale RE-driven desalination plants have been installed worldwide. Nevertheless, most of these plants are connected to the electrical grid to assure a continuous energy supply for stable operation. Furthermore, RE is mostly used to produce electric power which can be used to run desalination systems. This review paper focusses on an integrated approach in using RE-driven with an emphasis on solar and geothermal desalination technologies. Innovative and sustainable desalination processes which are suitable for integrated RE systems are presented. An assessment of the benefits of these technologies and their limitations are also discussed.

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“…In some systems, the amount of energy required to produce 1 m³ of fresh water decreased by over 64% [10]. It is more difficult to estimate brackish water cost because of water quality and quantity changes from site to site and sometimes even at the same site [11]. But, brackish water cost is always lower than SWRO mainly due to lower salinity feed water which requires lower applied pressure and allows higher recovery.…”

Section: Trends In Desalination Costsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Technical review and evaluation of the economics of water desalination: Current and future challenges for better water supply sustainability

2013

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Desalination capacity has rapidly increased in the last decade because of the increase in water demand and a significant reduction in desalination cost as a result of significant technological advances, especially in the reverse osmosis process. The cost of desalinated seawater has fallen below US$0.50/m 3 for a large scale seawater reverse osmosis plant at a specific location and conditions while in other locations the cost is 50% higher (US$1.00/m 3 ) for a similar facility. In addition to capital and operating costs, other parameters such as local incentives or subsidies may also contribute to the large difference in desalted water cost between regions and facilities. Plant suppliers and consultants have their own cost calculation methodologies, but they are confidential and provide water costs with different accuracies.The few existing costing methodologies and software packages such as WTCost© and DEEP provide an estimated cost with different accuracies and their applications are limited to specific conditions. Most of the available cost estimation tools are of the black box type, which provide few details concerning the parameters and methodologies applied for local conditions. Many desalination plants built recently have greater desalinated water delivery costs caused by special circumstances, such as plant remediation or upgrades, local variation in energy costs, and site-specific issues in raw materials costs (e.g., tariffs and transportation). Therefore, the availability of a more transparent and unique methodology for estimating the cost will help in selecting an appropriate desalination technology suitable for specific locations with 2 consideration of all the parameters influencing the cost. A techno-economic evaluation and review of the costing aspects and the main parameters influencing the total water cost produced by different desalination technologies are herein presented in detail. Some recent developments, such as the increase of unit capacity, improvements in process design and materials, and the use of hybrid systems have contributed to cost reduction as well as reduction in energy consumption. The development of new and emerging low-energy desalination technologies, such as adsorption desalination, will have an impact on cost variation estimation in the future.

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Performance evaluation of BWRO desalination plant — A case study

Cited by 64 publications

References 4 publications

Performance evaluation of the DCMD desalination process under bench scale and large scale module operating conditions

Performance evaluation of the DCMD desalination process under bench scale and large scale module operating conditions

Renewable energy-driven desalination technologies: A comprehensive review on challenges and potential applications of integrated systems

Technical review and evaluation of the economics of water desalination: Current and future challenges for better water supply sustainability

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