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Renewable Energy Powered Desalination Systems: Technologies and Market Analysis UNIVERSIDADE DE LISBOA FACULDADE DE CIÊNCIAS DEPARTAMENTO DE ENGENHARIA GEOGRÁFICA, GEOFÍSICA E ENERGIA Renewable Energy Powered Desalination Systems: Technologies and Market Analysis Francisco Diogo Abreu Santos Moniz Azevedo Dissertação de Mestrado Integrado em Engenharia da Energia e do Ambiente Mestrado Integrado em Engenharia da Energia e do Ambiente 2014 UNIVERSIDADE DE LISBOA FACULDADE DE CIÊNCIAS DEPARTAMENTO DE ENGENHARIA GEOGRÁFICA, GEOFÍSICA E ENERGIA Renewable Energy Powered Desalination Systems: Technologies and Market Analysis Francisco Diogo Abreu Santos Moniz Azevedo Dissertação de Mestrado Integrado em Engenharia da Energia e do Ambiente Mestrado Integrado em Engenharia da Energia e do Ambiente Orientador: Prof. Doutor Jorge Maia Alves 2014 Abstract Water desalination is becoming a cost-effective solution to combat water scarcity in various areas of the planet. However, desalination is an energy-intensive process and most of the world’s plants are currently powered by conventional energy production. As the costs of fossil fuels increase, their operation becomes increasingly expensive and with the additional costs of pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Hence, the integration of renewable energy production with desalination is increasingly attractive. This thesis explores renewable energy-powered desalination technologies and how they can represent a sustainable solution to resolve water scarcity in diverse areas of the planet. Keywords: Desalination; Renewable Energy; Water Scarcity; Resumo A dessalinização de água está a tornar-se uma solução economicamente viável para combater a escassez de água em várias regiões do planeta. No entanto, este processo consome bastante energia e a maioria das centrais mundiais são atualmente alimentadas por fontes de energia convencional. Com o custo dos combustíveis fósseis a aumentar, a sua operação torna-se cada vez mais onerosa e com as dificuldades adicionais da poluição e das emissões de gases de efeito estufa. Assim, a integração da produção de energias renováveis com a dessalinização é cada vez mais atraente. Este trabalho explora tecnologias de dessalinização alimentadas por energias renováveis e como estas podem representar uma solução sustentável para resolver a escassez de água em diversas regiões do planeta. Palavras-Chave: dessalinização; energias renováveis; escassez de água; Table of Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................................. iii Resumo ................................................................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents .................................................................................................................................... v List of Figures ....................................................................................................................................... vii List of Tables ........................................................................................................................................ viii List of Acronyms .................................................................................................................................... ix Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................ xi 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Water Scarcity ......................................................................................................................... 2 1.2 The Energy-Water Nexus ........................................................................................................ 6 2. Desalination Technologies .............................................................................................................. 9 2.1 Thermal Desalination ............................................................................................................ 10 2.1.1 Multi-Stage Flash .......................................................................................................... 10 2.1.2 Multi Effect Distillation ................................................................................................ 11 2.1.3 Vapour Compression ..................................................................................................... 12 2.2 Membrane Desalination ........................................................................................................ 13 2.2.1 Electrodialysis ............................................................................................................... 13 2.2.1 Membrane Distillation ................................................................................................... 14 2.2.2 Reverse Osmosis ........................................................................................................... 15 2.3 Energy Requirements ............................................................................................................ 18 2.4 Environmental Impact ........................................................................................................... 20 3. Renewable Energy-Powered Desalination .................................................................................... 23 3.1 Solar-Powered Desalination .................................................................................................. 24 3.1.1 Solar Stills ..................................................................................................................... 24 3.1.2 Solar Ponds .................................................................................................................... 25 3.1.3 Indirect Solar Thermal ................................................................................................... 26 3.1.4 Solar Photovoltaic ......................................................................................................... 30 3.2 Wind-Powered Desalination .................................................................................................. 32 3.3 Geothermal-Powered Desalination ........................................................................................ 33 3.4 Hybrid-Powered Desalination ............................................................................................... 34 4. Desalination Markets ..................................................................................................................... 35 4.1 Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region ................................................................... 37 4.1.1 Saudi Arabia .................................................................................................................. 40 4.2 Other Areas............................................................................................................................ 43 4.3 Economic Assessment ........................................................................................................... 45 5. Conclusions ................................................................................................................................... 51 6. References ..................................................................................................................................... 53 List of Figures Figure 1: Trend in population density and water consumption [6] ......................................................... 2 Figure 2: Physical and Economic surface water scarcity (2007); [7] as in [4] ........................................ 3 Figure 3: Percentage of country populations that will be water stressed in the future [8] ...................... 4 Figure 4: Actual renewable water resources (in m3) per capita and per year, in 2011 [4] ...................... 4 Figure 5: Total Renewable Water Resources (m3 per capita): Projections until 2050 [4] ...................... 5 Figure 6: Water footprint of energy generation by fuel; Water use for electricity generation by cooling technology [4] ......................................................................................................................................... 7 Figure 7: Dry and automated cleaning at Ketura Sun ............................................................................. 8 Figure 8: Diagram of MSF process [16] ............................................................................................... 10 Figure 9: Diagram of MED process [16] ............................................................................................... 11 Figure 10: Fujairah F2 MED plant in United Arab Emirates ................................................................ 12 Figure 11: Diagram of VC process [16] ................................................................................................ 12 Figure 12: Effective range of membrane processes and applications [49] ............................................ 13 Figure 13: Scheme of ED process ......................................................................................................... 13 Figure 14: principle of membrane distillation ....................................................................................... 14 Figure 15: Schematic of Reverse Osmosis Desalination process [15] .................................................
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