Seawater desalination costs

Voutchkov, N. Seawater desalination costs cut through power plant co-location. Filtr. Sep. 41(7), 24-26 (2004)... 

Figure 3.20 Seawater desalination cost reduction during last 20 years. (Taken from papers in Semiat et al., 2004.)...

Discharge to surface water is the most economical form of concentrate management for seawater desalination plants, regardless of the discharge volume. Due to the availability of ocean discharge for seawater desalination plants, the cost of disposal tends to be less costly than for inland desalination. Costs include pumps and pipes. 

Turek, M. 2003a. Cost effective electrodialytic seawater desalination. Desalination 153, 371-376. 

Figure 11 Memstill technology of seawater desalination developed at the TNO institute (a) principle of the process (b) cost comparison with other desalination techniques. (From Ref. 226.)...

The reverse-osmosis membrane process is considered universally as the most promising technology for brackish and seawater desalination [18]. Potential directions for reducing desalination costs may be deduced by analyzing the cost of the components. 

Figure 10.4 Cost estimate of a common RO seawater desalination plant.

Some of the largest plants for seawater desalination, wastewater treatment and gas separation are already based on membrane engineering. For example, the Ashkelon Desalination Plant for seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO), in Israel, has been fully operational since December 2005 and produces more than 100 million m3 of desalinated water per year. One of the largest submerged membrane bioreactor unit in the world was recently built in Porto Marghera (Italy) to treat tertiary water. The growth in membrane installations for water treatment in the past decade has resulted in a decreased cost of desalination facilities, with the consequence that the cost of the reclaimed water for membrane plants has also been reduced. 

The disposal of highly concentrated effluents (after seawater desalination) back into the ocean leads to increased pollution. This will result in the destruction of local and marine flora and fauna, and can be expected to introduce other ecological hazards. Because of this, it probably will be worthwhile to install a mineral recovery unit at the desalination plants, despite the extra cost, just to reduce the possibility of serious ecological problems. 

Hanemaaijer, J.H. Memstil—low cost membrane distillation technology for seawater desalination. Desalination, 168, 355, 2004. 

Characterization of uncertainties in the operation and economies of the proposed seawater desalination plant in the Gaza Strip was made by using a Bayesian belief network (BBN) approach [80]. In particular, the model was used to (1) characterize the different uncertainties involved in the RO process, (2) optimize the RO process reliability and cost, and (3) study how uncertainty in unit capital cost, unit operation and maintenance (O M) cost, and permeate quality was related to different input variables. The minimum specific capital cost was found to be 0.224 0.064 US /m, and the minimum O M cost was found to be 0.59 0.11 US /m. This unit cost was for a production capacity of 140,000 mVday. 

S. A1 Obaidani, E. Curcio, F. Macedonio, G. Di Profio, H. Al-Hinai, and E. Drioli, Potential of membrane distillation in seawater desalination Thermal efficiency, sensitivity study and cost estimation, J. Membr. Set 323 (2008) 85-98. 

NF-RO or RO-MSF seawater desalination plants has a potential for significant reduction in the cost of drinking water ... 

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