Techno-economic assessment and environmental impacts of desalination technologies

This paper presents a comprehensive review and assessment of desalination technologies such as thermal which includes multi-stage flash (MSF) and multiple effect distillation (MED), membrane reverse osmosis (RO), and hybrid (MSF/MED-RO). The assessment includes energy requirements, water production cost, technology growth trends, environmental impact and potential for the technology improvements. Comparison and technology matrix of commercial technologies are highlighted. The global desalination policies for the major desalination user countries, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), United States of America (USA), Spain, China and Kuwait are given. More detailed analysis of desalination, cogeneration, and water situation in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with some related recommendations for future policy and plans are also presented. © 2010 Elsevier B.V.