Water desalination by (nonsolar) renewable energy-powered RO systems

Abstract

The most widespread desalination technology is reverse osmosis (RO) due to its energy efficiency compared to other technologies. Although RO is an energy-intensive process, this technology can be powered by renewable energy sources (RES). Of all nonsolar RES applied to RO process, the most used and mature is the wind energy. Generally, a RO desalination plant consists of a pretreatment, RO process itself and postprocess that need to be powered. In full-scale seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination plants, > 80% of the total energy consumption is consumed in the RO process. The high wind energy potential in coastal areas has favored the integration of wind turbines (WT-RO) and SWRO or brackish reverse osmosis (BWRO) desalination plants. Power requirements by RO process has led to the design of different layouts of WT-RO systems to reduce the specific price. One of the main challenges that has to be faced by WT-RO systems is the power variability on RO process. Mainly it affects system performance, life of the components and consequently to the viability of this technology.