Volume 1: Survey of Available Information in Support of the Energy-Water Bandwidth Study of Desalination Systems

Abstract

PrefaceReducing energy consumption through investment in advanced technologies and practices can enhance American manufacturing competitiveness. Energy bandwidth studies of U.S. manufacturing sectors serve as general data references to help stakeholders understand the range (or bandwidth) of potential energy savings opportunities. The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) has commissioned a series of bandwidth studies to analyze energy-intensive processes and provide technology-based estimates of potential energy savings opportunities. Most recently, AMO has commissioned a bandwidth study to analyze the energy consumption characteristics of desalination systems for municipal water. The research will determine the energy consumption and carbon emissions implications of increasing the share of potable water in the United States provided by seawater desalination. The consistent methodology used in the previous bandwidth studies has provided a framework to evaluate and compare energy savings potentials within and across manufacturing sectors at the macroscale and will now be applied to the technology study area of desalination systems. The Energy-Water Bandwidth Study of Desalination Systems will expand the scope of previous bandwidth studies by also evaluating the carbon dioxide (CO2) intensity and reduction opportunities and will inform a techno-economic analysis of desalination systems.The complete information for this study will be provided in two volumes: Volume 1: Survey of Available Information in Support of the Energy-Water Bandwidth Study of Desalination Systems (this report) reviews the parameters that impact energy, emissions, and cost considerations, and provides background research and a framework for Volume 2: Energy-Water Bandwidth Study of Desalination Systems. Table P-1 shows the specific contents of the two volumes. With growing interest of desalination to meet domestic and global potable water demands, available results should be distributed as soon as they are developed; hence, Volume 1 is published in advance of Volume 2, and serves as an interim report for the Energy-Water Bandwidth Study of Desalination Systems.

Energy considerations associated with increased adoption of seawater desalination in the United States

“…First presented in Rao et al, Fig. 7 shows some of the considerations when evaluating any (membrane or thermal) seawater desalination system [78]. These considerations can be broadly categorized as: 1) process requirements and 2) system impacts.…”

A perspective on reverse osmosis water desalination: Quest for sustainability

“…The SEC is strongly affected by water product recovery, energy recovery (from the high pressure RO concentrate), pumping energy (including feed intake), operating conditions (e.g., RO feed channel velocity and feed‐side pressure), and plant configuration in terms of membrane modules arrangements . The various contributions to the total energy consumption for a seawater RO desalination plant typically includes the desalination stage and discharge (∼67%), RO feed pre‐treatment (∼13%), intake (∼7%) and post‐treatment (∼13%) . Because seawater RO is energy intensive, the costs of seawater RO is often considered high.…”

A Spatially Resolved Thermodynamic Assessment of Geothermal Powered Multi-Effect Brackish Water Distillation in Texas

“…This system could run completely on renewable energy and independently of the grid in non-geopressured regions if paired with an additional renewable energy source, such as wind or solar [7,8]. MED has an advantage over membrane desalination processes, as ramping thermal desalination up and down does not cause damage to the internal parts of the desalination system [43]. Paired with wind or solar energy, the system could be programmed to run only when the wind and/or solar energy is providing enough of an additional energy input to fully power the desalination process.…”