Water water everywhere…: Desalination powered by renewable energy sources

✍ Scribed by D. Assimacopoulos

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2001
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 644 KB
• Volume: 2
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1471-0846
• DOI: 10.1016/s1471-0846(01)80062-7

✦ Synopsis

Feed dosage seawater SUPPlY pump T he reliable and safe provision of fresh water is turning out to be one of the major constraints, which many parts of the world are currently facing. The historiCa approach of developing new water sources to meet the rapidly increasing demand has reached its limits because inexpensive resources have already been developed and new ones are more expensive. Desalination, a mature and reliable technology, is becoming a competitive alternative to traditional supply options, although the high equipment and energy costs inhibit its wide market penetration. The oil rich Middle East, where oil or its associated gas is used to drive desalination plants, relies on desalination to meet over 40% of the domestic and industrial water consumption (Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, UAE, Kuwait) '. Many other arid areas of the world have neither the cash nor the indigenous fossil fuel resources to follow a similar development.

These areas, however, often have a signif-