Integration of Wind Energy and Desalination Systems: A Review Study

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The paper is on an interesting and important issue. The topic fits well to the scope of Processes. It is worthy to publish this manuscript in Processes after Major correction.

There are some comments and suggestions on the manuscript which are:

• I advise including more current references, from the last five years.
  I have done a quick bibliographic search and I have found the following references that can help to improve this manuscript:

  (I am not the author of any reference that I indicate)

  [1]      G. Azinheira, R. Segurado, and M. Costa, “Is Renewable Energy-Powered Desalination a Viable Solution for Water Stressed Regions? A Case Study in Algarve, Portugal.,” Energies (19961073), vol. 12, no. 24, p. 4651, 2019, doi: 10.3390/en12244651.

[2]      D. Borge-Diez, F. J. García-Moya, P. J. Cabrera Santana, and E. Rosales-Asensio, “Feasibility analysis of wind and solar powered desalination plants: An application to islands,” 2021, [Online]. Available: http://hdl.handle.net/10553/75309.

[3]      V. J. Subiela, B. Peñate, and L. García-Rodríguez, “Configurations of reverse osmosis plants with variable energy consumption for off-grid wind-powered seawater desalination: system modeling and water cost.,” Desalin. Water Treat., vol. 180, pp. 1–15, 2020, doi: 10.5004/dwt.2020.24991.

[4]      V. J. Subiela, B. Peñate, and L. García-Rodríguez, “Design recommendations and cost assessment for off-grid wind-powered - seawater reverse osmosis desalination with medium-size capacity.,” Desalin. Water Treat., vol. 180, pp. 16–36, 2020, doi: 10.5004/dwt.2020.25013.

[5]      J. A. Carta González and P. J. Cabrera Santana, “Optimal sizing of stand-alone wind-powered seawater reverse osmosis plants without use of massive energy storage,” 2021, [Online]. Available: http://hdl.handle.net/10553/111924.

[6]      E. J. Okampo and N. Nwulu, “Optimisation of renewable energy powered reverse osmosis desalination systems: A state-of-the-art review,” Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev., vol. 140, 2021, doi: 10.1016/j.rser.2021.110712.

[7]      D. A. S. K., “Wind energy utilisation for water desalination, street and buildings lighting − a case study for The Emirate of Ajman − UAE,” Renew. Energy Environ. Sustain., vol. 6, p. 10, 2021, doi: 10.1051/rees/2021012.

[8]      A. Panagopoulos, “Water-energy nexus: desalination technologies and renewable energy sources.,” Environmental science and pollution research international, vol. 28, no. 17. pp. 21009–21022, 2021, doi: 10.1007/s11356-021-13332-8.

• In figure 1 the author indicate "an overview of the possible interfaces between desalination technologies and wind energy is presented, but the relationship with wind energy does not appear but with different forms of energy.

• In table 1 where a summary of desalination systems with wind energy is included, it would include the year of commissioning of the installation

Author Response

Please see attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The topics chosen by the authors for analysis is one of the most important ones that appear in the world today. There is a shortage of water in many places on earth, which is why it is so important to obtain clean water from seawater. In addition, various methods of obtaining water that are environmentally friendly have been presented. First of all, integration of wind energy and desalination systems. The authors reviewed nearly 80 literature items. They presented 9 schematics of the pilot projects described in literature. The diagrams are carefully made and their appearance is standardized. The work is well thought out and written legibly as well as interesting. I have no comments on the article.

Only in line 592 there is a dot (.) in the middle of the line. It should be deleted.

Author Response

Dear reviewer, the authors would like to thank you for the kind words and positive comments.

R: “The topics chosen by the authors for analysis is one of the most important ones that appear in the world today. There is a shortage of water in many places on earth, which is why it is so important to obtain clean water from seawater. In addition, various methods of obtaining water that are environmentally friendly have been presented. First of all, integration of wind energy and desalination systems. The authors reviewed nearly 80 literature items. They presented 9 schematics of the pilot projects described in literature. The diagrams are carefully made and their appearance is standardized. The work is well thought out and written legibly as well as interesting. I have no comments on the article.

Only in line 592 there is a dot (.) in the middle of the line. It should be deleted.”

A: Thank you for noticing it, this was corrected in the paper.

In addition to the change mentioned above, the whole paper has been revised and some parts were rewritten, in the attempt to make it more clear and readable.

Reviewer 3 Report

The paper titled “Integration of wind energy and desalination systems: a review study” and written by Francesca Greco et al. studied desalination technologies powered by wind energy. The manuscript has some drawback that should be remedied before considering for publication. I recommend a moderate revision based on the following comments:

1. First, the authors should take care with the format and style required by the journal. Page 1 line, 4, “2” should be written as subscript. Page 1, line 22. “3” should also be written as superscript. Please, revise the entire document.
2. Words table and figure should be written as “Table” and “Figure” including in the caption. Please, revise the entire document
3. Section 2 is about desalination technologies. Which different are between desalination technologies for wind energy application and without wind energy application? The title does not make sense to me as every desalination technology that require energy could be powered by on-grid or off-grid wind energy sources with the appropriate converters.
4. The abbreviations are a little bit messy. Reverse osmosis should be abbreviated in page 2, line 71 and from that line just use the abbreviation. Same happen with renewable energy sources in page 8, it should be abbreviating in page 1. Please, check the entire document and try to be careful with such things.
5. In section 2.2. membrane processes such as pressure retarded osmosis, forward osmosis, reverse electrodialysis, membrane capacitive deionization are missing. Why?
6. In table 1, column 3, authors wrote separate thousands by coma. This is ok, but use in the entire document in the same way. For example, in page 5, line 186 35,000 instead of 35000.
7. Page 11, provide a space between 7.5 and kW. Please, revise the entire document.
8. In section 4.3, the authors should provide more studies related with the variable and intermittent operation of RO desalination systems. In order to make it easier for authors, here are some suggestions:
   1. Performance evaluation and boron rejection in a SWRO system under variable operating conditions
   2. Design of photovoltaic powered reverse osmosis desalination systems considering membrane fouling caused by intermittent operation
   3. Theoretical performance prediction of a reverse osmosis desalination membrane element under variable operating conditions
   4. Long-term intermittent operation of a full-scale BWRO desalination plant
   5. Effects of wind intermittence and fluctuation on reverse osmosis desalination process and solution strategies
   6. On-Off Control Strategy in a BWRO System under Variable Power and Feedwater Concentration Conditions
   7. Operation of desalination plants using renewable energies and hybrid control
9. Considering this is a review paper, the number of references are a little short considering the topic is wind powered desalination systems. In order to make it easier for authors, here are some suggestions:
   1. Reverse osmosis (RO) membrane desalination driven by wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) energy: State of the art and challenges for large-scale implementation
   2. Commercial thermal technologies for desalination of water from renewable energies: A state of the art review
   3. Energy, exergy, and thermo-economic analysis of renewable energy-driven polygeneration systems for sustainable desalination
   4. Variable renewable energy sources for powering reverse osmosis desalination, with a case study of wave powered desalination for Kilifi, Kenya
   5. Energy for desalination: A state-of-the-art review
   6. Optimisation of renewable energy powered reverse osmosis desalination systems: A state-of-the-art review

Author Response

Please see attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Since the authors successfully considered the reviewer comments, I recommend acceptance of the revised manuscript

Reviewer 3 Report

The authors have addressed all my comments. In table 2, there are 3s that should be written as superscripts