Techno-Economic Analysis of Selected PV-BWRO Desalination Plants in the Context of the Water–Energy Nexus for Low–Medium-Income Countries

Ahmed N. Bdour (), Noor Al-Sadeq, Muna Gharaibeh, Angeles Mendoza-Sammet, Maria D. Kennedy and Sergio G. Salinas-Rodriguez
Additional contact information
Ahmed N. Bdour: Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, The Hashemite University, Zarqa 13133, Jordan
Noor Al-Sadeq: Department of Environmental Health, College of Health Sciences, The American University of Beirut, Beirut 1107 2020, Lebanon
Muna Gharaibeh: Water Authority of Jordan, Department of Desalination, Amman 11183, Jordan
Angeles Mendoza-Sammet: Department of Land and Water Management, IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, 2611 AX Delft, The Netherlands
Maria D. Kennedy: Water Supply, Sanitation and Environmental Engineering Department, IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, 2611 AX Delft, The Netherlands
Sergio G. Salinas-Rodriguez: Water Supply, Sanitation and Environmental Engineering Department, IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, 2611 AX Delft, The Netherlands

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 22, 1-21

Abstract: Jordan was late in adopting seawater and brackish water desalination as a source until the late 1990s and early 2000s. However, ongoing studies are still discussing the technical, economic, and socio-political aspects of brackish water reverse osmosis (BWRO) desalination plants. In this study, the water–energy nexus was considered, in order to highlight the main challenges facing BWRO desalination. We discuss the use of photovoltaic (PV) technology, together with BWRO desalination, as an approach to compensate for ecological, financial, and social challenges in Jordan. For this purpose, the performance of nine existing BWRO desalination plants in the agricultural, domestic, and industrial sectors is assessed. The water performance is assessed based on water consumption, safe yield extraction, plant recovery rate (R, %), and compliance to local and international water quality standards; the Specific Energy Consumption (SEC, kWh/m 3 ) is taken as the main evaluation criterion to assess the energy performance of the BWRO desalination plants; and economic performance is assessed based on the overall cost of water produced per cubic meter (USD/m 3 ). The main environmental component is the brine disposal management practice utilized by each plant. Based on this assessment, the main challenges in BWRO desalination are the unsustainable patterns of water production, mismanaged energy performance, low recovery rates, and improper brine disposal. The challenges in domestic and industrial BWRO desalination, which are completely dependent on the electricity grid, are associated with critical energy and costs losses, as reflected by the high SEC values (in the range of 2.7–5.6 kWh/m 3 ) and high water costs per cubic meter (0.60–1.18 USD/m 3 ). As such, the use of PV solar panels is suggested, in order to reduce the electricity consumption of the assessed BWRO plants. The installation of PV panels resulted in significantly reduced energy costs (by 69–74%) and total costs (by 50–54%), compared with energy costs from the electricity grid, over the lifetime of the assessed BWRO desalination plants.

Keywords: water–energy nexus; brackish water reverse osmosis desalination; solar energy; photovoltaic panels; recovery rate; brine discharge management; water conservation; economic feasibility; specific energy consumption (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/22/8657/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/22/8657/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:22:p:8657-:d:976764

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().