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Energetic and economic feasibility of a combined membrane-based process for sustainable water and energy systems

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  • Touati, Khaled
  • Usman, Haamid Sani
  • Mulligan, Catherine N.
  • Rahaman, Md. Saifur

Abstract

The water-energy nexus has received a surge of attention recently in the research community as the security of water and energy is becoming a focal concern amongst future uncertainties. Providing innovative technologies that assure water, energy, and food security is thus becoming crucial. In this study, a potential solution is introduced, a membrane-based process that combines seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO), nanofiltration (NF), and pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) to produce drinking water, energy, and water for irrigation. Firstly, an energetic study was performed to evaluate the performance of this process. The analysis of the total energy consumption showed a compelling amount of generated energy (~0.38 kWh/m3). Secondly, a techno-economic study was realized to investigate the economic viability of the process. We found that, with membranes priced at $5/m2, the system is economically feasible with the actual PRO membrane performance. An improvement of membrane performance is required when the membrane price is above $15/m2. The effect of the plant capacity was also investigated. Results showed an improvement on the economics of the process with increased input flows. Finally, the effect of membrane fouling was investigated on the feasibility of the SWRO-PRO-NF process. It was shown that fouling has a drastic impact on the performance, and, thus, economic feasibility of the reported process. Recommendations are enumerated to improve the performance of SWRO-PRO-NF and to mitigate the impact of membrane fouling such optimization of pretreatment and introducing advanced antifouling membrane materials.

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  • Touati, Khaled & Usman, Haamid Sani & Mulligan, Catherine N. & Rahaman, Md. Saifur, 2020. "Energetic and economic feasibility of a combined membrane-based process for sustainable water and energy systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:264:y:2020:i:c:s0306261920302117
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.114699
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Altaee, Ali & Palenzuela, Patricia & Zaragoza, Guillermo & AlAnezi, Adnan Alhathal, 2017. "Single and dual stage closed-loop pressure retarded osmosis for power generation: Feasibility and performance," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 328-345.
    2. Touati, Khaled & Salamanca, Jacobo & Tadeo, Fernando & Elfil, Hamza, 2017. "Energy recovery from two-stage SWRO plant using PRO without external freshwater feed stream: Theoretical analysis," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 84-95.
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    Cited by:

    1. Zadeh, Ali Etemad & Touati, Khaled & Mulligan, Catherine N. & McCutcheon, Jeffrey R. & Rahaman, Md. Saifur, 2022. "Closed-loop pressure retarded osmosis draw solutions and their regeneration processes: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    2. Usman, Haamid Sani & Touati, Khaled & Rahaman, Md. Saifur, 2021. "An economic evaluation of renewable energy-powered membrane distillation for desalination of brackish water," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 1294-1304.
    3. Touati, Khaled & Rahaman, Md. Saifur, 2020. "Viability of pressure-retarded osmosis for harvesting energy from salinity gradients," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    4. Bargiacchi, Eleonora & Orciuolo, Francesco & Ferrari, Lorenzo & Desideri, Umberto, 2020. "Use of Pressure-Retarded-Osmosis to reduce Reverse Osmosis energy consumption by exploiting hypersaline flows," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).

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