Wind Energy - Water Desalination

Water desalination: an overview

Of all the water present on Earth, 96.5% consists of seawater. The remaining 3.5% is freshwater, but half of that is tied up in ice and consequently not usable. All in all, significantly less than 1% of the world’s water resources are exploitable as drinking water.

Drinking water is characterised by a high degree of purity, which among other things means a low salt content. There are often directives and regulations governing the permissible salt content in drinking water (such as the Drinking Water Ordinance in Germany). According to the limit defined by the World Health Organisation1, a salt content of up to 0.5 g/l is harmless to human health. Oc-casionally, though, the opinion is also heard that water with a salt content of up to 1 g/l is drinkable. The distinction between freshwater, brackish water and seawater is equally inconsistent. In Ger-man usage, the term brackish water usually relates to water with a salt content of 1 – 10 g/l, while in the Anglo-Saxon world water is still referred to as brackish if the salt content is as much as 18 g/l. Seawater has an average salt content of 35 g/l, although salinity can vary between 2 and 45 g/l depending on the locality. Whatever the case, obtaining drinking water or service water from salty seawater or brackish water calls for removal of salt (and other minerals) from the untreated raw water. This is done by separating the raw water into product water, with a low salt content, and brine, with a high salt content.

There are numerous desalination methods, some of which have been in use in large plants for over 100 years. The common, tried-and-tested desalination technologies can be divided into thermal methods (distillation or vaporisation processes) and membrane methods (see Table 1). In addition there are simple (solar) evaporation systems and complex techniques, not yet used commercially, such as freezing (water separation) and ion exchange (salt separation).

Table 1: Thermal and membrane methods of water desalination

Thermal methods	Market share (2005)	Membrane methods	Market share (2005)
Multi-stage flash distillation (MSF)	36%	Reverse osmosis (RO)Reverse osmosis (RO)	46%
Multi-effect distillation (MED)	3%	Electrodialysis (ED)	5%
Vapour compression (VC)	5%

In early 2005 there were more than 10,000 desalination plants with a daily output of at least 100 m³ in service world-wide. The plants are situated in coastal locations where there is a shortage of drinking water, or in semiarid/arid areas where only brackish water is available. The principal consumers are towns, cities and local communities (63%). Desalination plants are also occasionally used on ships. However, the total installed desalination capacity of about 36 million m³/day met only just under 0.3% of global demand for fresh water. The majority of installed desalination plants (53%) are used for seawater desalination; 24% operate with brackish water, 9% treat surface water, and 6% are designed for treating wastewater (Pacific Institute, 2006). Roughly half the installed desalination capacity is located in the Middle East, the Persian Gulf and North Africa (Figure 1); thermal methods are preferred there, mostly in conjunction with combined heat and power plants (cogeneration stations). In countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, the main source of water is seawater. In the USA, which accounts for 17% of global desalination capacity, mainly brackish water and surface water is treated (70% on the basis of reverse osmosis).

The most common desalination methods

Thermal methods

The underlying principle behind thermal methods is that the raw water is brought to boiling temperature and the condensed steam is separated from the brine. As the boiling point depends on pressure (water evaporates at 100°C under atmospheric pressure), the principle can be applied in several process stages, gradually reducing both pressure and boiling temperature. The lower the pressure, the less thermal energy is needed for evaporation. All thermal desalination methods make use of the thermodynamic principle that the evaporation process can be optimised by reducing pressure and boiling temperature (cf. Wangnick 2001, Pacific Institute 2006).

Mechanical vapour compression (MVC): Of the various thermal methods, above all vapour compression enters into consideration for wind-powered desalination. As with all the thermal methods, in vapour compression evaporation takes place by reducing the boiling temperature as a result of reducing pressure. However, the process heat required for evaporation is normally generated by a mechanical – electrically operated – compressor and not provided by a steam generator. In addition to mechanical vapour compression plants there are also types known as thermo-compression plants which operate with process steam and use several evaporation stages.

Mechanical vapour compression is the only distillation method operated solely with electrical energy. Usually the mechanical plants consist of a single stage, and reach daily capacities of up to 3,000 m³. They are considered to be reliable and have low maintenance requirements (no biofouling or scaling), are simple to operate, and require only little additional outlay on pretreatment and post-treatment of the raw water and product water. Their specific power demand (compressor, feed pump) is in the region of 7 - 12 kWh/m³.

Membrane methods

Reverse Osmosis: This method came onto the market at the end of the 1960s and is based on the idea of reversing the natural tendency to balance the level of concentration between two solutions (osmosis). Reverse osmosis counteracts the osmotic pressure by forcing the salty raw water through membranes in the direction opposite to its “natural” direction of diffusion, leaving the dissolved salt behind. The greater the difference in concentration between the salt solutions in the raw water and the required product water (i.e. the greater the osmotic pressure), the more pressure has to be exerted by reverse osmosis. The amount of electrical energy required for reverse osmosis (usually with high-pressure pumps) therefore rises in direct proportion to the salt water content of the raw water [for a given level of product water quality and product water yield] and to product water yield [for a given salt content in the raw water]. In seawater desalination plants with pressure recovery, specific power consumption (high-pressure pump, feed pump, flushing) ranges between 2.5 kWh/m³ and 7.5 kWh/m³; highly efficient plants are said to consume as little as only 2 kWh/m³. Thanks to modular construction methods, plants vary in size from 100 m³/day to 400,000 m³/day, with specific investment costs of 500 – 1,300 USD/m³/day. There are also micro desalination plants for domestic purposes or mobile use ( 2 litres/minute). Membrane methods such as reverse osmosis are used not only for water desalination, but also for treating wastewater. Depending on the available raw water, the product water yield and the required product water quality, smooth operation of the plants requires more or less elaborate pretreatment of the raw water (filtration and addition of chemicals), regular flushing (in some cases with automatic flushing programmes), frequent replacement of the membranes, avoidance of pressure fluctuations at the membranes (alternating operation), and where applicable post-treatment of the product water (filtration, disinfection).

Important characteristics of the various desalination methods are summarised in Table 2.

Table 2: Characteristics of water desalination methods

	MSF	MED	MVC	RO	ED
Primary energy source	Steam	Steam	Mechanical/ electrical	electrical	electrical
Max. salt concentration of raw water (g/l)	100	100	100	43	3
Product water yield	=<50%	=<50%	30-50%	=<50% (brackish water =<85%)	Brackish water: =< 97%
Product water quality (mg/l)	<10	<10	<10	<500	<500

Options for wind-powered water desalination

In the following, wind-powered water desalination is taken to mean a combination of a wind energy conversion system and a desalination plant. Although wind energy in this connection is primarily used to operate the desalination unit, any excess energy can also be passed on to other consum-ers, for example in the form of electrical energy, if appropriate via the power grid. However, this study does not consider the case of a wind power plant that is built to feed electricity into a trans-mission grid via which power is also supplied to a desalination plant (regardless of whether or not the wind power plant exists).

As wind energy converters supply mechanical or electrical energy, only vapour compression, re-verse osmosis or electrodialysis come into consideration for wind-powered water desalination. All three desalination techniques have been tested in combination with wind turbines in pilot projects or under R&D conditions. Most of the pilot plants are located in the Mediterranean region (or Ca-nary Islands) and serve the purpose of seawater desalination, using reverse osmosis, with daily capacities of up to 2,500 m3. There have been a handful of tests with electrically powered vapour compression plants (Rügen, Canary Islands). No practical experience has been obtained with va-pour compression or reverse osmosis plants powered by mechanical wind energy. Trials with wind-powered desalination of brackish water using electrodialysis have been carried out on the Canary Islands (Veza 2004).

Despite all the pilot schemes and tests no wind-powered desalination plants have established themselves on the market yet. In addition it must be stated that the experience gathered in pilot projects and tests has mostly only been evaluated for the purposes of academic debate and also is only accessible through such channels, and furthermore that there is still no reliable database available which would allow conclusions to be drawn regarding possible use under the conditions encountered in developing countries.

Operating modes

Wind-powered water desalination plants can be operated in island mode (with or without an addi-tional supply of electrical energy, for example from a diesel generator set) or in grid-parallel mode. The proposal was therefore made to categorise plant configuration according to the proportion of wind energy in the desalination unit’s total energy consumption (Käufler 2006). This would result in systems with a low, medium and high wind penetration rate (extent to which energy needs are met by wind).

Island mode with water storage

What makes the use of wind energy converters appear attractive for water desalination, especially when operating solely in island mode, is the fact that the wind energy can be stored in the form of desalinated water and thus be adapted to meet demand (such as constant daily volumes of drinking water). Water storage facilities mitigate the problem that the wind-dependent load curve of a wind power plant does not necessarily match the time profile of energy demand (or of demand for
product water). Provided there are no lengthy periods of calm or storm, an additional water storage facility to compensate for wind fluctuations causes only little additional cost and would reduce the cost otherwise incurred by alternative solutions such as overdimensioning of the wind power plant (with a high proportion of unusable excess electricity), battery storage or the provision of backup or emergency generating systems. Additional water storage for wind operation means that the storage volume is greater than the storage needs that would be planned anyway to allow for consumption peaks, for example, or for interruptions owing to operational disruptions or to regulate pressure fluctuations in the piping system.

Load fluctuations

Storing water does not, however, solve the technical problem that the desalination plant has to cope with fluctuations in the availability of wind energy when it is directly coupled to the wind power plant (without additional energy sources).7 Load fluctuations do not constitute a significant impedi-ment for vapour compression because the power demand of the desalination unit can be largely adapted to match the availability of wind. In the case of reverse osmosis it is true that a modular design can be used to counter changing wind conditions, but even then a constant operating re-gime is required for the individual modules. Load fluctuations mean that a complex control system is required (frequent startup and shutdown procedures), increasing the risk of material fatigue and faults or failures. A further factor applicable to island mode, irrespective of the need for technical adaptation of the desalination facilities, is that (pronounced) load fluctuations and (long) periods of calm or storm are associated with relatively low levels of capacity utilisation of the desalination unit and consequently increase the specific desalination costs.

Backup by diesel generator or grid-supplied power

One important question therefore is whether the additional costs associated with focusing solely on island mode (technical adaptation of the desalination unit, downtimes, additional water storage facility or lack of constant water supply) can be justified when compared with other practicable so-lutions. However, there is insufficient experience to estimate with any precision the costs and risks involved in variable (island) operation, especially of RO plants. Most wind-powered RO pilot plants have been designed so that they can be run at constant load using additional energy sources (grid-supplied energy or diesel generator). It is questionable, though, whether this design is the result of prior optimisation calculations. The fact that providing backup for wind-powered water desalination plants from the grid or running them in association with diesel generators allows the plants to be operated uniformly or in line with demand, and helps improve their capacity utilisation rate does not necessarily mean that this configuration is always the most advantageous. Conversely, however, it is equally difficult to maintain that the benefit of wind power primarily depends on saving diesel-generated electricity or substituting grid-supplied energy. As shown by numerical examples below, under certain circumstances it may well be worth bringing in relatively expensive diesel or grid power in order to increase the capacity utilisation of a wind-powered desalination plant.

Cost efficiency

As a general principle, wind energy which is specifically more expensive than other available energy sources does not become cheaper by being used for water desalination. On the contrary, economic use of wind energy presupposes that the wind energy is cost-efficient from the outset. It follows, then, that a necessary condition for economic use of wind energy for water desalination is that it at least does not increase the specific energy-related desalination costs. Assumingthat this is the case, the following scenarios can be distinguished:

1. Sites where autonomous wind-powered desalination allows provision of acceptable water sup-plies at the lowest possible cost: in this case wind energy would be preferred to other solutions anyway because of its cost advantage. The fact that wind energy thereby implicitly substitutes grid power or diesel power would be a secondary effect that arises from the cost saving.
2. Sites where wind energy can be provided more cost-effectively than electricity supplied from the grid or diesel generators, but where supplementing energy allows provision of a product water volume that is constant over time (or demand-driven) and/or improved capacity utilisation of the desalination unit: in this case the most advantageous design variant is the one in which the additional use of grid or diesel power minimises the specific water production costs. Draw-ing grid or diesel power beyond the cost-minimised level would be uneconomic.