IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i12p5124-d375451.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Requirements for the Construction of New Desalination Plants into a Framework of Sustainability

Author

Listed:
  • Francisco Berenguel-Felices

    (Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain)

  • Antonio Lara-Galera

    (Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain)

  • María Belén Muñoz-Medina

    (Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain)

Abstract

Population growth has increased in the last two centuries. In the driest countries, water supply alternatives are scarce, and desalination is an alternative to guarantee water supply. The question is what conditions must be met by the new desalination plants to achieve the objectives of sustainability. The present study is an analysis of the social, economic, and environmental variables that are critical in the development of desalination plants: technology used, energy sources, correction of the generated environmental impacts, and the most appropriate contractual model for its development. These attributes justify at the time of writing why reverse osmosis is the safest and most efficient technology among those available and those that are under investigation. It is proposed to incorporate renewable energy production sources, although it is still necessary to continue depending on the significant contribution of the traditional energy sources. The need will also be demonstrated to adopt corrective measures to mitigate against the impact produced on the environment by energy production and to implement monitoring plans to confirm the validity of these corrective measures. Finally, turnkey contracts are proposed because osmosis technology is complex, although technology should be justified by means of a decision support system. One of the determining factors is proposed in this present analysis.

Suggested Citation

  • Francisco Berenguel-Felices & Antonio Lara-Galera & María Belén Muñoz-Medina, 2020. "Requirements for the Construction of New Desalination Plants into a Framework of Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-20, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:12:p:5124-:d:375451
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/12/5124/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/12/5124/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Raluy, Gemma & Serra, Luis & Uche, Javier, 2006. "Life cycle assessment of MSF, MED and RO desalination technologies," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 31(13), pages 2361-2372.
    2. Palenzuela, Patricia & Zaragoza, Guillermo & Alarcón-Padilla, Diego C. & Guillén, Elena & Ibarra, Mercedes & Blanco, Julián, 2011. "Assessment of different configurations for combined parabolic-trough (PT) solar power and desalination plants in arid regions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 4950-4958.
    3. World Commission on Environment and Development,, 1987. "Our Common Future," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780192820808.
    4. Kämpf, Jochen & Clarke, Beverley, 2013. "How robust is the environmental impact assessment process in South Australia? Behind the scenes of the Adelaide seawater desalination project," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 500-506.
    5. Eltawil, Mohamed A. & Zhengming, Zhao & Yuan, Liqiang, 2009. "A review of renewable energy technologies integrated with desalination systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 13(9), pages 2245-2262, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Roggenburg, Michael & Warsinger, David M. & Bocanegra Evans, Humberto & Castillo, Luciano, 2021. "Combatting water scarcity and economic distress along the US-Mexico border using renewable powered desalination," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 291(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Omar, Amr & Nashed, Amir & Li, Qiyuan & Leslie, Greg & Taylor, Robert A., 2020. "Pathways for integrated concentrated solar power - Desalination: A critical review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    2. González, Daniel & Amigo, José & Suárez, Francisco, 2017. "Membrane distillation: Perspectives for sustainable and improved desalination," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 238-259.
    3. Mechthild Donner & Anne Verniquet & Jan Broeze & Katrin Kayser & Hugo de Vries, 2021. "Critical success and risk factors for circular business models valorising agricultural waste and by-products," Post-Print hal-03004851, HAL.
    4. Cornelis Leeuwen & Jos Frijns & Annemarie Wezel & Frans Ven, 2012. "City Blueprints: 24 Indicators to Assess the Sustainability of the Urban Water Cycle," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 26(8), pages 2177-2197, June.
    5. CHEN, Helen S.Y., 2020. "Designing Sustainable Humanitarian Supply Chains," OSF Preprints m82ar, Center for Open Science.
    6. Jim Butcher, 2006. "The United Nations International Year of Ecotourism: a critical analysis of development implications," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 6(2), pages 146-156, April.
    7. Denise Ravet, 2011. "Lean production: the link between supply chain and sustainable development in an international environment," Post-Print hal-00691666, HAL.
    8. Mara Del Baldo, 2012. "Corporate social responsibility and corporate governance in Italian SMEs: the experience of some “spirited businesses”," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 16(1), pages 1-36, February.
    9. Megan Devonald & Nicola Jones & Sally Youssef, 2022. "‘We Have No Hope for Anything’: Exploring Interconnected Economic, Social and Environmental Risks to Adolescents in Lebanon," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-17, February.
    10. Rigby, Dan & Woodhouse, Phil & Young, Trevor & Burton, Michael, 2001. "Constructing a farm level indicator of sustainable agricultural practice," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 463-478, December.
    11. Michael Howes & Liana Wortley & Ruth Potts & Aysin Dedekorkut-Howes & Silvia Serrao-Neumann & Julie Davidson & Timothy Smith & Patrick Nunn, 2017. "Environmental Sustainability: A Case of Policy Implementation Failure?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-17, January.
    12. Shiferaw, Bekele & Holden, Stein, 1999. "Soil Erosion and Smallholders' Conservation Decisions in the Highlands of Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 739-752, April.
    13. Ibrahim Ari & Muammer Koc, 2018. "Sustainable Financing for Sustainable Development: Understanding the Interrelations between Public Investment and Sovereign Debt," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-25, October.
    14. Parnphumeesup, Piya & Kerr, Sandy A., 2011. "Stakeholder preferences towards the sustainable development of CDM projects: Lessons from biomass (rice husk) CDM project in Thailand," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 3591-3601, June.
    15. Pengji Wang & Adrian T. H. Kuah & Qinye Lu & Caroline Wong & K. Thirumaran & Emmanuel Adegbite & Wesley Kendall, 2021. "The impact of value perceptions on purchase intention of sustainable luxury brands in China and the UK," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 28(3), pages 325-346, May.
    16. Christoph M. Schmidt & Nils aus dem Moore, 2014. "Wie geht es uns? Die W3-Indikatoren für eine neue Wohlstandsmessung," RWI Positionen, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, pages 16, 03.
    17. Katundu Imasiku & Valerie M. Thomas & Etienne Ntagwirumugara, 2020. "Unpacking Ecological Stress from Economic Activities for Sustainability and Resource Optimization in Sub-Saharan Africa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-12, April.
    18. Chin-Shan Lu & Kuo-Chung Shang & Chi-Chang Lin, 2016. "Examining sustainability performance at ports: port managers’ perspectives on developing sustainable supply chains," Maritime Policy & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(8), pages 909-927, November.
    19. Kebede, Yohannes, 1993. "The Limits to Common Resource Management: The Bypassed Commons or Commons without Tragedy," MPRA Paper 662, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 01 May 1993.
    20. John Stanley & Janet Stanley, 2023. "Improving Appraisal Methodology for Land Use Transport Measures to Reduce Risk of Social Exclusion," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-18, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:12:p:5124-:d:375451. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.