What is the significance of desalination in regions such as the middle east

Adsorption Desalination AD is considered as one of the most energy efficient processes available. AD can use direct solar energy or industrial waste-heat to desalinate high-salinity water, but there are still issues with its initial capital cost which need to be addressed through modeling and investigating its payback cycle. Membrane distillation MD is a thermally driven low-energy process that utilizes a hydrophobic, microporous membrane to separate fresh water by liquid-vapor equilibrium.

The process is based on the combination of conventional distillation and membrane technologies involving heat and mass transfer.

However, several major hurdles, including the low permeate flux and low thermal efficiency of MD modules, prevent its mass commercialization. More research is needed to develop novel MD membranes with high throughput to increase the permeate flux and thermal efficiency by using industrial waste-heat or by incorporating the direct use of solar energy 9 Forward osmosis FO processes can be used directly or indirectly to make the desalination process more energy efficient.

Indirect FO desalination processes use low salinity feed solution like wastewater to dilute higher salinity seawater and produces partially desalinated water, which can be used for irrigation. Ongoing research shows that the fouling on membrane surfaces is lower while a complete removal of contaminants, such as micropollutants, natural organic matter, trace metals and nutrients from the feed water is possible 11 However, there are still a number of aspects that need to be explored before the technology can be applied for commercial production in the Middle East.

The development of high throughput FO membranes will be a breakthrough towards process scale-up and commercialization.

As the demand for fresh water grows in the Middle East, the future of desalination will depend on combining established and emerging technologies. Researchers need to focus on the hybridisation of forward osmosis FO , membrane distillation MD , and adsorption desalination AD coupled with and without conventional desalination processes such as thermal desalination and reverse osmosis.

This combination will assist the development of energy efficient and renewable energy-driven desalination technologies. Besides development of energy efficient and environment-friendly desalination technologies, good planning and management of water resources is essential.

There is a huge potential in reusable water techniques to improve utilization of treated domestic and industrial wastewater to produce ample fresh water supplies. Sign-up to receive our e-alert update every two weeks to keep up with everything new on the portal. Desalination by the Numbers. Other countries in the region lacking domestic fossil fuel energy sources, have their major plants built for membrane technologies which are less energy intensive and only require electrical power as energy source.

These countries rely less on desalination due to financial restrictions and better access to other freshwater resources. Cost is the biggest challenge with desalination. A study estimated the cost of desalinated water per m 3 to be 1.

This makes desalination less attractive for poorer countries in the region. Desalination can have significant negative impacts on the environment. But the use of membrane technologies is growing in the region.

In our outlook to , the production of desalinated seawater in the Middle East is projected to increase almost fourteen-fold to , and there is a concerted shift towards membrane-based desalination in both our New Policies Scenario NPS and Sustainable Development scenarios SDS. By , over three-quarters of the water produced in the Middle East in the NPS is from membrane-based desalination. However, because the power sector remains heavily reliant on natural gas and oil for power generation in , most desalination still depends on fossil fuel-based electricity.

A more rapid phase-out of subsidies for fossil fuels in the SDS results in a higher share of water production from membrane-based and Concentrating Solar Power desalination in than in the NPS.

The policy choices taken in the SDS also lead to the deployment of more renewables, which account for over half of power generation by Thank you for subscribing. You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link at the bottom of any IEA newsletter. Learn more.

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