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Perspectives and Challenges for Desalination in Low- and Middle- Income Countries

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "B: Energy and Environment".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2022) | Viewed by 13940

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Sergio G. Salinas Rodriguez

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, Delft, The Netherlands
Interests: water treatment; desalination; membrane technology
Dr. Gustavo Fimbres Weihs

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
Interests: desalination; membrane technology; CFD
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. German Eduardo Devora

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Departamento de Ingeniería Química, Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, México
Interests: desalination; renewable energies; decentralized systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Considering that about 785 million people still lacked even a basic drinking water service in 2019 (UN, SDG progress, 2019), that nearly 2.4 billion people live within 100 km of the coast (UN, Ocean Conference 2017) and the challenges associated with increased water stress (i.e., less renewable water and decreased water quality, with more challenging emerging compounds), desalination is already an alternative solution that many countries all over the world are relying upon. For instance, in Kenya, in Likoni in Mombasa County they are planning the construction of a desalination plant with capacity of 100,000 m3/day. In Mexico, the government considered the construction of four desalination plants in its water and sanitation investment plan for the coming five years. Technology has improved and costs have decreased to the point that, when compared to the rising cost of clean water obtained from other sources, desalination has become an attractive option.

Large-scale desalination technology has been in use for decades. More than 20,000 facilities operate worldwide, with an increasing number of desalination plants in middle- and lower-income countries. Although seawater is the primary source, brackish water and treated wastewater are growing in production capacity.

In this Special Issue we want to address the challenges and perspectives of desalination for middle- and lower-income countries. The challenges are broad, including energy demand and supply, use of renewable energies in desalination, intermittent operation, capacity development of personnel, operation and maintenance, water quality, intakes and outfalls, environmental impact and mitigation actions, case studies, pre-treatment, reverse osmosis, funding and costs, etc.

Prof. Dr. Sergio G. Salinas Rodriguez
Dr. Gustavo Fimbres Weihs
Dr. German Eduardo Devora
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  •  desalination
  • water reuse
  •  membrane technology
  •  developing countries
  •  decentralized systems
  •  case study
  •  seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO)
  •  brackish water reverse osmosis (BWRO)
  •  operation
  •  finance
  •  water quality
  •  environmental impact

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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21 pages, 2054 KiB  
Article
Techno-Economic Analysis of Selected PV-BWRO Desalination Plants in the Context of the Water–Energy Nexus for Low–Medium-Income Countries
by Ahmed N. Bdour, Noor Al-Sadeq, Muna Gharaibeh, Angeles Mendoza-Sammet, Maria D. Kennedy and Sergio G. Salinas-Rodriguez
Energies 2022, 15(22), 8657; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15228657 - 18 Nov 2022
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2574
Abstract
Jordan was late in adopting seawater and brackish water desalination as a source until the late 1990s and early 2000s. However, ongoing studies are still discussing the technical, economic, and socio-political aspects of brackish water reverse osmosis (BWRO) desalination plants. In this study, [...] Read more.
Jordan was late in adopting seawater and brackish water desalination as a source until the late 1990s and early 2000s. However, ongoing studies are still discussing the technical, economic, and socio-political aspects of brackish water reverse osmosis (BWRO) desalination plants. In this study, the water–energy nexus was considered, in order to highlight the main challenges facing BWRO desalination. We discuss the use of photovoltaic (PV) technology, together with BWRO desalination, as an approach to compensate for ecological, financial, and social challenges in Jordan. For this purpose, the performance of nine existing BWRO desalination plants in the agricultural, domestic, and industrial sectors is assessed. The water performance is assessed based on water consumption, safe yield extraction, plant recovery rate (R, %), and compliance to local and international water quality standards; the Specific Energy Consumption (SEC, kWh/m3) is taken as the main evaluation criterion to assess the energy performance of the BWRO desalination plants; and economic performance is assessed based on the overall cost of water produced per cubic meter (USD/m3). The main environmental component is the brine disposal management practice utilized by each plant. Based on this assessment, the main challenges in BWRO desalination are the unsustainable patterns of water production, mismanaged energy performance, low recovery rates, and improper brine disposal. The challenges in domestic and industrial BWRO desalination, which are completely dependent on the electricity grid, are associated with critical energy and costs losses, as reflected by the high SEC values (in the range of 2.7–5.6 kWh/m3) and high water costs per cubic meter (0.60–1.18 USD/m3). As such, the use of PV solar panels is suggested, in order to reduce the electricity consumption of the assessed BWRO plants. The installation of PV panels resulted in significantly reduced energy costs (by 69–74%) and total costs (by 50–54%), compared with energy costs from the electricity grid, over the lifetime of the assessed BWRO desalination plants. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Perspectives and Challenges for Desalination in Low- and Middle- Income Countries)
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15 pages, 2238 KiB  
Article
Effect of Temperature on Energy Consumption and Polarization in Reverse Osmosis Desalination Using a Spray-Cooled Photovoltaic System
by María Magdalena Armendáriz-Ontiveros, Germán Eduardo Dévora-Isiordia, Jorge Rodríguez-López, Reyna Guadalupe Sánchez-Duarte, Jesús Álvarez-Sánchez, Yedidia Villegas-Peralta and María del Rosario Martínez-Macias
Energies 2022, 15(20), 7787; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15207787 - 20 Oct 2022
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3220
Abstract
Reverse osmosis (RO) desalination is considered a viable alternative to reduce water scarcity; however, its energy consumption is high. Photovoltaic (PV) energy in desalination processes has gained popularity in recent years. The temperature is identified as a variable that directly affects the behavior [...] Read more.
Reverse osmosis (RO) desalination is considered a viable alternative to reduce water scarcity; however, its energy consumption is high. Photovoltaic (PV) energy in desalination processes has gained popularity in recent years. The temperature is identified as a variable that directly affects the behavior of different parameters of the RO process and energy production in PV panels. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of temperature on energy consumption and polarization factor in desalination processes at 20, 23, 26 and 30 °C. Tests were conducted on a RO desalination plant driven by a fixed 24-module PV system that received spray cooling in the winter, spring and summer seasons. The specific energy consumption was lower with increasing process feed temperature, being 4.4, 4.3, 3.9 and 3.5 kWh m−3 for temperatures of 20, 23, 26 and 30 °C, respectively. The water temperature affected the polarization factor, being lower as the temperature increased. The values obtained were within the limits established as optimal to prevent the formation of scaling on the membrane surface. The spray cooling system was able to decrease the temperature of the solar cells by about 6.2, 13.3 and 11.5 °C for the winter, spring and summer seasons, respectively. The increase in energy production efficiency was 7.96–14.25%, demonstrating that solar cell temperature control is a viable alternative to improve power generation in solar panel systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Perspectives and Challenges for Desalination in Low- and Middle- Income Countries)
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Review

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23 pages, 1921 KiB  
Review
State of the Art of Desalination in Mexico
by Juan Ríos-Arriola, Nicolás Velázquez, Jesús Armando Aguilar-Jiménez, Germán Eduardo Dévora-Isiordia, Cristian Ascención Cásares-de la Torre, José Armando Corona-Sánchez and Saúl Islas
Energies 2022, 15(22), 8434; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15228434 - 11 Nov 2022
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 7045
Abstract
This research paper presents a review of the state of the art of desalination in Mexico, with the aim of clarifying the main challenges and opportunity areas for desalination as the main solution to overcome water stress. First, the current situation and forecasts [...] Read more.
This research paper presents a review of the state of the art of desalination in Mexico, with the aim of clarifying the main challenges and opportunity areas for desalination as the main solution to overcome water stress. First, the current situation and forecasts on the availability of water resources in Mexico are described, followed by the main economic, social, and legislative issues of desalination. Mexico’s installed capacity for the different desalination technologies and their evolution in recent years was investigated, followed by a comparison with global trends. The current state of research and development in desalination technologies carried out by Mexican institutions was also studied. The results show that membrane technology plants account for 88.85%, while thermal technology plants account for the remaining 11.15%. Although Mexico presented a 240% increase in its desalination capacity in the last 10 years, it has not been enough to overcome water stress, so it is concluded that in the future, it is necessary to increase its capacity in greater proportion, specifically in the areas with greater scarcity, which can be achieved with the joint participation of academy–industry–government through the creation of autonomous organizations, social programs, and/or public policies that promote it. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Perspectives and Challenges for Desalination in Low- and Middle- Income Countries)
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