Sustainable Cities and Society 9 (2013) 6780

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Sustainable Cities and Society

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Opportunities for solar water desalination worldwide: Review

Mahmoud Shatat , Mark Worall, Saffa Riffat
Institute of Sustainable Energy Technology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Keywords: Water desalination is increasingly becoming a competitive solution for providing drinking-water in many
Water countries around the world. The desalination of saline water has been recognized as one of the most sus-
Desalination tainable and new water resource alternative. It plays a crucial role in the socio-economic development
Solar energy
for many communities and industrial sectors. Currently there are more than 14,000 desalination plants
in operation worldwide producing several billion gallons of water per day. Fifty-seven percent are in the
Middle East and Gulf region where large scale conventional heat and power plants are installed. How-
ever, since they are operated using fossil fuels, they are becoming expensive to operate and the pollution
and greenhouse gas emissions they produce are increasingly recognized as harmful to the environment.
Moreover, such plants are not economically viable in remote areas, even in coastal regions where sea-
water is abundant. Many areas often experience a shortage of fossil fuels and inadequate and unreliable
electricity supply. The integration of renewable energy resources in desalination and water purication is
becoming more viable as costs of conventional systems increase, commitments to reducing greenhouse
gas emissions are implemented and targets for exploiting renewable energy are set. Thus, solar energy
could provide a sustainable alternative to drive the desalination plants, especially in countries which lie
on the solar belt such as Africa, the Middle East, India, and China. This paper explores the challenges and
opportunities of solar water desalination worldwide. It presents an extensive review of water desalina-
tion and solar desalination technologies that have been developed in recent years and the state-of-the-art
for most important efforts in the eld of desalination by using solar energy, including the economic and
environmental aspects.
2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Contents

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
2. Challenges to international water desalination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
3. Nexus between renewable energy, conventional and water desalination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
4. Water desalination technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
4.1. Thermal desalination processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
4.2. Membrane desalination processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4.2.1. Spiral wound membrane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4.2.2. Hollow ne bre (HFF) membrane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
5. Potential integration of desalination with renewable energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
6. Solar water desalination technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
6.1. Direct solar desalination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
6.2. Indirect solar desalination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
6.2.1. Solar still coupled with solar collectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
6.2.2. Solar humidication and dehumidication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
6.2.3. Water desalination powered by solar photovoltaics (PV) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Abbreviations: DC, an electrical direct current; ED, electro dialysis; MD, membrane distillation; MED, multiple effect evaporation; MSF, multi-stage ash distillation; VC,
vapor compression evaporation; PV, photovoltaic cells; RO, reverse osmosis; ppm, part per million; UN, United Nations; UNEP, United Nations Environment Programme;
TDS, total dissolved solids (mg/L); WHO, World Health Organization; MENA, Middle East and North Africa.
Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 0115 9513158; fax: +44 0115 9513159.
E-mail addresses: enxms9@nottingham.ac.uk, mahmoodshatat@hotmail.com (M. Shatat), mark.worall@nottingham.ac.uk (M. Worall), saffa.riffat@nottingham.ac.uk
(S. Riffat).

2210-6707/$ see front matter 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2013.03.004
68 M. Shatat et al. / Sustainable Cities and Society 9 (2013) 6780

7. Economics and performance of desalination processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

7.1. Economics of thermal desalination processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
7.2. Economics of water desalination using membrane processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
7.3. Cost analysis of renewable and solar water desalination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
8. Conclusions and outlook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

1. Introduction (Quteishat & Abu-Arabi, 2012). Extensive research and develop-

ment activities have been conducted to explore the opportunities
Water and energy are necessary for life on Earth and sustain the for sustainable and feasible methods of producing drinking water
modern world. In many parts of the developed world, the control using solar energy (Buros, 1999). Conventional desalination sys-
and exploitation of water and energy has driven economic devel- tems are operated using fossil fuels, resulting in increase in costs
opment and progress. In the developing world, many regions suffer because of the rise in world energy prices, increase in environmen-
from shortages of fresh water and energy supplies. The United tal pollution and the emission of greenhouse gases. In spite of these
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) stated that one third of problems, it is likely that seawater desalination in large scale heat
the worlds population live in countries with insufcient freshwa- and power plants will continue to play a substantial role in pro-
ter to support the population. Consequently by 2025, two thirds of viding fresh water for domestic and industrial use in areas of high
the world population will face water scarcity (UNEP, 2012). Drink- population density, especially in oil rich Gulf countries and parts of
ing water of acceptable quality has become a scarce commodity. India and China. However, such plants are not economically viable
The World Health Organization estimates that over a billion peo- in remote areas where electricity infrastructure is poor and sup-
ple lack access to puried drinking water and the vast majority plies inadequate and unreliable. The development of alternative,
of these people are living in rural areas where the low population compact, small-scale water desalination systems is imperative if
density and remote locations make it difcult to install traditional the populations in such areas are to gain access to fresh and safe
clean water solutions (Qiblawey & Banat, 2008). Unfortunately, in water supplies (Buzs, Farkas, Bir, & Nmeth, 1998; Gleick, 1998).
addition to being scarce, freshwater resources are also unevenly Semi-arid regions generally have a large solar energy utilization
distributed geographically worldwide (Mohammed, 2011). Desali- potential, as solar desalination concepts and methods are speci-
nation of seawater is known to be one of mankinds earliest forms cally suited to supplying dry regions with fresh water. The key point
of water treatment, and it has become one of the most sustainable is that efcient and environment-friendly solar energy coupled
alternative solutions to provide fresh water for many communities with desalination technologies would be an appropriate alterna-
and industrial sectors. This plays a crucial role in socio-economic tive to producing fresh water on both small and medium scales.
development in a number of developing countries, especially in This solution is suitable for supplying up to a half of the rural popu-
water stressed regions such as Africa, Pacic Asia and countries in lation living in arid regions that lack conventional fossil fuels, whilst
the Middle East. Hence, the increase in population together with the reaching an average of 15% in oil-rich countries (Chaibi, 2000). Solar
industrial and agricultural development in emerging countries will thermal water desalination is proving to be a viable method of pro-
accelerate rapidly the deterioration and depletion of the available ducing fresh water from saline sources (Al-Kharabsheh, 2003) in
freshwater resources. remote locations; humidication and dehumidication solar water
Desalination is a process in which saline water is separated into desalinations units and conventional basin solar stills with a rela-
two parts using different forms of energy, one that has a low con- tively large footprint are an example of such simple technologies,
centration of dissolved salts (fresh water), and the other which has but the main problems with the use of solar thermal energy in
a much higher concentration of dissolved salts than the original large-scale desalination plants are the relatively low productivity,
feed water (brine concentrate) (Buros, 2000). Saline water is classi- the low thermal efciency and the considerable land area required.
ed as either brackish water or seawater depending on the salinity However, since solar energy utilized is free the operating costs
and water source. are signicantly reduced compared with conventional plant (Al-
Large commercial desalination plants that use fossil fuels are in Kharabsheh & Yogi, 2003; Naim, Mervat, & Abd El-Kawi, 2003;
use in most of the countries suffering from water shortages. For Qiblawey & Banat, 2008).
instance, a number of oil-rich countries use fossil fuel to supple- This paper aims to explore the opportunities for adopting solar
ment the energy for water desalination supply. In contrast people water desalination technologies worldwide to minimize water
in many other areas of the world have neither the nancial nor oil shortage. It also presents an extensive review of the published lit-
resources to allow them to develop in a similar manner. The pro- erature on the various desalination technologies using solar energy
duction of 1000 m3 per day of freshwater requires 10,000 tonnes and including both the implementation challenges as well as eco-
of oil per year (Kalogirou, 2005), which can be considered a highly nomic and environmental impacts.
signicant energy consumption, as it involves a recurrent energy
expense which few of the water-short areas of the world can 2. Challenges to international water desalination
afford. Recently, the utilization of renewable sources (e.g., solar,
biomass, wind, and geothermal) to drive desalination plants has In the next few decades, access to water for drinking, agricultural
emerged as a promising sustainable solution for fresh water supply and industrial use will become an increasingly crucial challenge for
in regions lacking energy supply. This may be especially signi- many countries around the world. Currently, freshwater is becom-
cant in regions where water is needed and renewable resources are ing a scare commodity and is used unsustainably in the majority
available such as Africa and the Middle East region. The conversion of the worlds regions. Over 70% of the Earths surface is covered
of solar radiation into direct utilization has been investigated for by water but most of it is unsuitable for human consumption. With
many years (Kalogirou, 2005). Recently, attention has been directed total global water reserves of about 1.4 billion km3 , around 97.5% of
towards improving the conversion efciency of solar energy sys- it is in the oceans and the remaining 2.5% is fresh water present in
tems, desalination technologies and their optimal coupling to make the atmosphere, ice mountains, freshwater lakes, rivers and ground
them economically viable for small and medium scale applications water, as shown in Fig. 1. Only about 0.014% is directly available
 M. Shatat et al. / Sustainable Cities and Society 9 (2013) 6780 69

Fig. 1. Distribution of world water resources (UN Water, 2012; World resource, 2012).

for human beings and other organisms (World resource, 2012). In
spite of water scarcity, freshwater resources are also very unevenly
distributed across the world.
The worlds water consumption rate is doubling every 20 years,
and is outpacing population growth by two times. Accordingly,
water scarcity is expected to affect one in three people on every
continent of the planet. Almost one fth of the worlds population
live in areas where water is scarce. It is projected that by the year
2025 water demand will exceed supply by 56% due to persistent
regional droughts, and shifting of the population to urban coastal
cities (Water and Process Technology, 2012). As of today, about
three billion people have no access to a potable source of water and
about 1.76 billion people live in areas already facing a high degree
of water shortage (Ma & Lu, 2011). The mismatch between the need
for fresh water and its availability will intensify as competing needs
for water grow due to population growth, urbanization, the impact
of greenhouse gases on the environment and increases in house-
hold and industrial demand for water (Safe Drinking-water, 2012).
However most projections estimate that the world population will
stabilize at between 8 and 9.50 billion by around 2050 and that
most of this growth will take place in the developing world, popu-
lation growth will not only increase domestic water consumption,
but also impacts on the consumption of agricultural, industrial and
other products, and energy use. The population of the world has
tripled in the last century, with a six fold increase of the global
water use (Fresh water shortage, 2012).
Recently, the rapid economic growth of many countries, partic-
ularly in China and India, has led to higher incomes stimulating
greater consumption of goods and services. The production of
goods and services requires huge quantities of water. Decoupling
income growth from water consumption is one of the major chal-
lenges to water management. Urbanization is another demographic
trend resulting in greater water use. Such rapid growth would add
tremendous stress on the regions water resources. Even today, the
major cities rely on deep wells to abstract water from aquifers. The
discharge of inadequately treated wastewater in many developing
countries contributes negatively in the pollution and degradation
of its limited water resources. Lack of fresh water reduces economic
development and lowers living standards. Clearly, there is a critical
worldwide need to improve the management of this increasingly
valuable resource (Miller, 2003; Water Desalination, 2012). Conse-
quently desalination of saline water can be used to augment the
increasing demand for fresh water supplies. However, desalination
is a very energy intensive process, often using energy supplied from
fossil fuel sources which are vulnerable to volatile global market
prices.
In the light of water scarcity and limited available fresh
water resources, the growth of the desalination market in the
world is rapidly developing to meet the increasing water demand
utilizing seawater, brackish water, river water, and brine. The
installed capacity was 60 Mm3 /day in 2010 and is expected to be
doubled by 2015. 38 Mm3 /day of these plants are planned to be
installed in the Gulf region and 59 Mm3 /day in the rest of the world
as shown in Fig. 2 (Lattemann, Kennedy, Schippers, & Amy, 2010).
Seawater desalination technology, available for decades, made
great strides in many arid areas of the world, such as the Mid-
dle East, the Mediterranean, and the Caribbean. Fig. 3 shows the
location of the existing desalination plants worldwide. The vast
majority of high production capacity plants are installed in the
Middle East. Seawater desalination in the Gulf region represents
65% of global water desalination capacity due to abundance of the
worlds largest oil reserves, with an acute shortage of potable water
resources as shown in Fig. 3 (Lattemann et al., 2010). Saudi Arabia,
UAE, U.S., Spain and China have the highest desalination capacity,
but India and Israel have seen a signicant growth since 2002, when
most of their capacities were installed (Global water, 2012).
3. Nexus between renewable energy, conventional and
water desalination
At present, the majority of desalination plants have been located
in regions with high availability and low costs of conventional
energy. Current statistics on desalination shows that only 1% of
total desalinated water is based on energy from renewable sources
(Water Desalination, 2012). Renewables are becoming increas-
ingly reliable and mainstream with costs decreasing year-on-year,
thus making renewable energy a viable option in many regions.
With increasing demand for desalinated water in energy-importing
countries such as India, China and small islands, there is a large
Fig. 2. Current and projected growth of desalination market worldwide.
Adapted from Lattemann et al. (2010).
70 M. Shatat et al. / Sustainable Cities and Society 9 (2013) 6780
Fig. 3. Global distribution of desalination capacities worlwide (Lattemann et al., 2010).
market potential for renewable energy-powered desalination sys-
tems worldwide. Renewable resources are plentiful but still remain
largely untapped. The reliance on fossil fuels is set to continue
since it is still considered by many to be the most cost effective
and reliable energy form. However, mass deployment of desali-
nation has presented a number of challenges, resulting in very
high energy demand and CO2 emissions from fossil fuelled sources
(Desalination Technologies, 2011). There is signicant potential in
developing integrated desalination and renewable energy tech-
nologies as a medium and long-term strategy, by encouraging
technically feasible renewable energy systems with funding and
investment (Renewable Desalination, 2010). The extent to which
sustainable desalination schemes could be technically feasible for
providing signicant amounts of water remains to be seen. The
use of sustainable energy sources such as hydropower or biofuels
may limit their viability as a solution, through negative impacts on
the waterenergyfood nexus (Global water security, 2012; Water
issues, 2012).
Recently, the current water stress challenges have led to exten-
sive research and development in sustainable water resources. The
sustainable alternative could be attained through adopting an inte-
grated water management strategy utilizing the renewable energy
sources for water treatment technologies. This strategy aims to
achieve sustainable use of the nations water resources by protec-
ting and enhancing their quality while maintaining economic and
social development (Water Resources and Use in Australia, 2012).
These alternatives should involve water desalination, waste-water
reuse and rain water harvesting systems. Consequently, recent
developments in desalination technologies have achieved a break-
through in terms of an affordable, low cost water supply and high
energy efciency. As per unit of desalinated water, the energy
consumed by the desalination processes has been reduced signi-
cantly in recent years meaning that, if solar technologies are to be
used, fewer PV modules would be required and the solar collec-
tor areas that are required will be reduced (Quteishat & Abu-Arabi,
2012). These advancements can make abundant fresh water both
from seawater and brackish water with a very low environmental
impact when it is integrated with renewables and solar energy in
particular, where most of MENAs region, Gulf area, India, China and
countries in Africa lie on the Sunbelt. Therefore, to alleviate water
shortages and tackle the real threat to resource sustainability, the
GCC countries are making continuous efforts to produce water by
constructing new desalination plants. For instance Saudi Arabia and
UAE are currently trying to manage the available water resources
and to meet the water demand growth in order to stop rapid dete-
rioration and depletion of its brackish water aquifers. Hence Saudi
Arabia looks towards solar energy to sustain the growth of water
and energy demand. An ambitious initiative has been recently
announced, to convert the Saudi Arabia desalination plants to solar
driven ones in 10 years. The rst large scale solar energy driven
(PV-SWRO) desalination plant is being developed. The plant will
produce 30,000 m3 /day of drinking water to more than 100,000
inhabitants. In addition to that Abu Dhabi in the UAE has just com-
mitted to invest $2 billion in two thin lm photovoltaic solar cells
(PV) factories in Germany and Abu Dhabi and it has also started
the construction of 2 1400 MW(e) nuclear power plant (Mezher,
Fath, Abbas, & Khaled, 2011).
4. Water desalination technologies
The majority of water desalination processes can be divided into
two types: phase change thermal processes and membrane pro-
cesses, as shown in Fig. 4, both encompass a number of different
processes. In addition, other alternative technologies of freezing
and ion exchange, but they are not widely used. All are operated
by either a conventional or renewable energy sources to produce
fresh water.
4.1. Thermal desalination processes
Thermal desalination is based on the principles of evapora-
tion and condensation. Water is increased in temperature until
it reaches its saturation temperature, beyond which evaporation
occurs. The salt is left behind whilst vapour is taken away and con-
densed in another heat exchanger to produce fresh water (Winter,
Pannell, & McCann, 2005). The thermal energy is produced in steam
 M. Shatat et al. / Sustainable Cities and Society 9 (2013) 6780 71

Fig. 4. Water desalination technologies (Shatat & Riffat, 2012).

generators, waste heat boilers or by the extraction of back-pressure concentrations to produce fresh water. A membrane is a thin lm
steam from turbines in power stations (Raluy, Serra, Uche, & Valero, of porous material that allows water molecules to pass through it,
2004). The most common thermal desalination processes are: but simultaneously prevents the passage of larger and undesirable
molecules such as viruses, bacteria, metals, and salts. Membranes
Multi-stage ash distillation (MSF); are made from a wide variety of materials such as polymeric mate-
Multiple-effect distillation (MED); rials that include cellulose, acetate, and nylon, and non-polymeric
Vapour-compression evaporation (VC); materials such as ceramics, metals and composites. Two of the most
Solar water desalination. successful membranes are spiral wound and hollow ne bre (HFF)
and both of these are used to desalt brackish water and seawater
4.2. Membrane desalination processes (Bou-Hamad, Abdel-Jawad, & Al-Tabtabaei, 1998).

Membrane technology was originally limited to municipal

water treatment such as micro-ltration and desalination, but with
the development of new membrane types, uses have expanded to
cover not only the water industry, but also high return processes
such as chemical separations, enzyme concentration and beverage
purication. This technology uses a relatively permeable mem-
brane to move either water or salt to induce two zones of differing
4.2.1. Spiral wound membrane
This type of membrane element is most commonly manufac-
tured as a at sheet of either a cellulose diacetate and triacetate
blend or a thin lm composite usually made from polyamide, poly-
sulphone, or polyurea polymers as illustrated in Fig. 5 (El-Dessouky
& Ettouny, 2001).

Fig. 5. Cutaway view of a spiral wound membrane element (El-Dessouky & Ettouny, 2001).
72 M. Shatat et al. / Sustainable Cities and Society 9 (2013) 6780

Fig. 6. Hollow ne bre membrane module (El-Dessouky & Ettouny, 2001).

4.2.2. Hollow ne bre (HFF) membrane
HFF is a U-shaped bre bundle housed in a pressure vessel.
The membrane materials are based on cellulose triacetate and
polyamide and its arrangement allows the highest specic surface
area of all the module congurations, resulting in compact plants.
Fig. 6 illustrates the HFF formation (El-Dessouky & Ettouny, 2001).
Membrane processes are also useful in municipal water treat-
ment; reverse osmosis (RO) and electrodialysis (ED) are replacing
phase-change desalting technologies for supplying water to coastal
and island communities all over the world. RO in particular, is
becoming an economical alternative to the traditional water soft-
ening processes (DWTMM, 2012). It includes several processes,
but the principal difference between them lies in the size of the
entities, ions, molecules and suspended particles that are retained
or allowed to pass through the membranes. Typical separa-
tion processes are nano-ltration, ultra-ltration, micro-ltration
and ltration used in the pre-treatment stages of desalination
to remove large particles, bacteria, ions, and for water soften-
ing (Water Desalination Technologies in the ESCWA Member
Countries, 2001). Fig. 7 shows the effective range of membrane
processes and applications.
5. Potential integration of desalination with renewable
energy
The worldwide installed desalination capacity is increasing
rapidly. Currently there are more than 14,451 desalination plants
in operation worldwide producing more than sixty million cubic
metres per day, according to the International Desalination Asso-
ciation (IDA) (Henthorne, 2009) and it is expected to reach one
hundred and twenty million cubic metres per day by 2020 of
which forty million cubic metres is planned for the Middle East
(Middle East, 2012). Since they are operated with fossil fuel, they
are becoming very expensive to run and the environmental pol-
lution they produce is increasingly recognized as very harmful to
the globe (Fischetti, 2007). Moreover, such plants are not econom-
ically viable in remote areas, even near a coast where seawater
is abundant. Many areas often experience a shortage of fossil fuels
and inadequate electricity supply. The International Energy Agency
(IEA) statistical data (IEA, 2012) show that modern renewable
technologies are growing rapidly and would overtake gas soon to
become the second-largest source of electricity behind coal and
account for 40% of global power generation by 2030. In 2006 about

Fig. 7. Effective range of membrane processes and applications (Bou-Hamad et al., 1998).
 M. Shatat et al. / Sustainable Cities and Society 9 (2013) 6780
Fig. 8. Combinations of renewable energy resources with water desalination technologies (Shatat & Riffat, 2012).
12.3% of world consumption of energy generated by renewables
with the largest fraction of 10.1% comes from traditional biomass
sources as well accounting for 16% of global electricity production
(Isabel & Andrea, 2010a). The potential use of renewable energy
in small-scale desalination in remote communities has received
increasing attention in recent years (Werner & Schfer, 2007). The
integration of renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and
geothermal energy with desalination systems holds great promise
for tackling water shortage and is a potential for viable solu-
tion of climate change problems and water scarcity (Renewable
Desalination, 2010).
Fig. 8 shows the integration of renewable energy resources with
desalination technologies.
In the meantime, the cost of desalination and renewable energy
systems are steadily decreasing, while fossil fuel prices are increas-
ing, reserves are being depleted, and concerns about energy
security increase. The desalination units powered by renewable
energy systems are uniquely suited to provide water and elec-
tricity in remote areas where water and electricity infrastructures
are currently lacking (Mahmoudi, Abdellah, & Ghaffour, 2009). In
2008, 10% of the generated electricity worldwide was produced by
renewable energy sources, such as (hydropower, biomass, biofu-
els, wind, geothermal, and solar). Current statistics on desalination
shows that only 1% of total desalinated water is based on energy
from renewable sources (Water Desalination Using Renewable
Energy, 2012). Recent assessment conducted by the US Energy
information administration forecasts that by 2035, consumption of
renewable energy will be about 14% of total world energy consump-
tion which shows strongest growth in global electric generating
capacity (US Energy, 2010) motivating the use of water desalination
technologies with renewable energy sources.
The desalination systems that use renewable energy sources
can be divided into three categories: wind, solar (photovoltaics or
solar collectors) and geothermal energy. These renewable energy
sources can be coupled with thermal distillation or membrane
desalination systems to produce water (Ali, Fath, & Armstrong,
2011; Mathioulakis, Belessiotis, & Delyannis, 2007). The decision
on which energy source is used should be made on the basis
of economic, environmental and safety considerations. Due to
its desirable environmental and safety advantages, it is widely
believed that where possible, solar energy should be utilized
instead of energy derived from fossil fuels, even when the costs
involved are slightly higher (Kalogirou, 2004).
73
Currently, solar energy is the most widely used among the
renewable sources, as shown in Fig. 9 (Quteishat & Abu-Arabi,
2012). So that by the utilization of solar energy for fresh water
production, three main problems can be addressed: fresh water
scarcity, fossil energy depletion and environmental degradation
due to greenhouse gas emissions and hydrocarbon pollution
(Bouchekima, 2003; Desalination Water Purication Technologies,
2010).
A comprehensive literature revealed that solar energy can be
identied as a viable energy source to be utilized in producing fresh
water from saline water (Al-Kharabsheh, 2003), especially in many
African and Asian countries, and MENAs region which are located
in semi-arid and sunny climates with average global solar irradia-
tion of 67 kWh/m2 /day (Africa Direct Noranl Solar, 2012). A further
advantage of solar water desalination technology is that peak solar
energy harnessed in summer seasons coincides with high water
demand in semi-arid areas. Consequently, the development of
affordable, inexhaustible and clean solar energy technologies will
have a signicant long term benets. It will increase energy security
through the use of a localized indigenous, inexhaustible and mostly
import-independent resource, enhance sustainability, reduce pol-
lution, lower the costs of mitigating climate change, and keep fossil
fuel prices lower (International Energy Agency, 2011).
6. Solar water desalination technologies
Solar water desalination has a long history. The rst docu-
mented use of solar stills was in the sixteenth century and, in
1872, the Swedish engineer, Carlos Wilson, built a large-scale
solar still to supply a mining community in Chile with drinking
Fig. 9. The use of renewable energy sources in water desalination (Quteishat & Abu-
Arabi, 2012).
74 M. Shatat et al. / Sustainable Cities and Society 9 (2013) 6780
Fig. 10. Possible congurations of solar energy resources with water desalination technologies.
water (Intermediate Technology Development Group, 2007). The
solar energy can be captured for use either by photovoltaic (PV)
devices and direct absorption using solar collectors or solar ponds
as thermal energy (Quteishat & Abu-Arabi, 2012). Solar powered
desalination processes are generally divided into two categories,
direct and indirect systems as shown in Fig. 10.
6.1. Direct solar desalination
The direct systems are those where the thermal desalination
processes take place in the same device and it is mainly suited to
small production systems, such as solar stills, in regions where the
freshwater demand is less than 200 m3 /day (Ma & Lu, 2011). Solar
still distillation represents a natural hydrologic cycle on a small
scale. The simple solar still is shown in Fig. 11. The solar still is
working as a trap for solar radiation that passes through a trans-
parent cover it consists of a basin containing salt water, a pair of
glass or plastic panels sloping at an angle above the basin and meet-
ing at the apex, creating a structure much like a greenhouse. The
basin is generally painted black to maximize the absorption of long
wave radiation falling on the surface. Solar radiation falls on the
sloping panels and the greenhouse effect that is produced in the
Fig. 11. Solar still desalination unit (Ali et al., 2011).
inside raises the temperature of the salt water held in a basin.
Water at the surface is evaporated, the water vapour rises in the
still and reaches the sloping panels, where it condenses to liquid
water and runs down the sides of the panels. The water is collected
and drawn off to provide fresh water. Solar stills can produce 34 L
of fresh water per day per square metre. Because of low produc-
tion rates, it is important to minimize capital costs by using very
inexpensive construction materials. Efforts have been made by var-
ious researchers to increase the efciency of solar stills by changing
the design, by using additional effects such as multi-stage evacu-
ated stills and by adding wicking material, and these modications
have increased production per unit area (Buros, 2000). In the sim-
ple solar still shown in Fig. 11, the latent heat of condensation is
dissipated to the environment. However, the latent heat of con-
densation can be used to pre-heat the feed-water, and this leads to
an improvement in the efciency.
Solar still technology requires a large area for solar collection
so it is not viable for large-scale production, especially near cities
where land is scarce and expensive. The comparative installation
costs tend to be considerably higher than those of other systems.
Solar stills are also vulnerable to damage by the weather. Labour
costs are likely to be high due to the need for routine maintenance
to prevent scale formation and to repair vapour leaks and damage
to the glazing panels (Buros, 2000; Miller, 2003). However, they can
be economically viable for small-scale production for households
and small communities, especially where solar energy and low cost
labour are abundant (Ali Samee, Mirza, Majeed, & Ahmad, 2007;
Buros, 2000).
6.2. Indirect solar desalination
In these systems, the plant is separated into two subsystems, a
solar collector and a desalination unit. The solar collector can be a
at plate, evacuated tube or solar concentrator and it can be cou-
pled with any of the thermal desalination processes types which
use the evaporation and condensation principle, such as multistage
ash distillation (MSF), vapour compression (VOC), multiple effect
evaporation (MED), and membrane distillation (MD) for possible
combinations of thermal desalination with solar energy. Systems
that use photovoltaic (PV) devices tend to generate electricity to
operate reverse osmoses (RO) and electro dialysis (ED) desalination
 M. Shatat et al. / Sustainable Cities and Society 9 (2013) 6780 75

Fig. 12. Water desalination technologies coupled with solar power sources installed worldwide (Ali et al., 2011).

processes (Miller, 2003; Ali et al., 2011). Fig. 12 shows the world-
wide use of the various desalination technologies using solar power
sources (Kaushal & Varun, 2010).

6.2.1. Solar still coupled with solar collectors

In order to increase still productivity many small-scale system
congurations have been examined such as coupling single stills
or multi-effect stills with solar collectors, as shown in Fig. 13. Cou-
pling more than one still with such solar collectors produces an
increase in efciency by utilizing the latent heat of condensation
in each effect, which is then delivered to the next stage (Shatat &
Mahkamov, 2010).

6.2.2. Solar humidication and dehumidication

In this process, saline water is evaporated by thermal energy
and the subsequent condensation of the humid air that is gen-
erated (normally at atmospheric pressure) produces freshwater
(DESWARE, 2007). Air has the capability to hold large quantities
of water vapour and its vapour carrying capability increases with
temperature (Parekh, Farid, Selman, & Al-hallaj, 2004). Many stud-
ies on desalination using humidicationdehumidication have
been conducted with a variety of fabricated devices (Or, Galanis, &
Laplante, 2007). The principle of this process is based on the evapo-
ration of water and the condensation of steam from humid air. The
Fig. 14. Humidifcation and dehumidication desalination unit coupled with solar
humid air ows in a clockwise circuit driven by natural convection collector (Mller-Holst et al., 1999).
between the condenser and the evaporator, as shown in Fig. 14.
In this example, the evaporator and condenser are located in the
same thermally insulated box. Seawater is heated in the evapora- is left in the evaporation unit, leaving it at a higher concentration,
tor and distributed slowly as it trickles downwards. The air moves while the saturated air condenses on a at plate heat exchanger.
in a counter-current ow to the brine through the evaporator and The distillate runs down the plates and trickles into a collecting
the air reaches saturation. Partial evaporation cools the brine that basin. The heat of condensation is mainly transferred to the cold

Fig. 13. Schematic diagram of single solar and multi effect solar still coupled with a solar collector (Al-Kharabsheh, 2003).
76 M. Shatat et al. / Sustainable Cities and Society 9 (2013) 6780

Fig. 15. RO desalination unit coupled with a PV generator (Al-Karaghouli and Kazmerski, 2011).

seawater owing upwards inside the at plate heat exchanger. Thus
the temperature of the brine in the condenser rises from 40 C to
approximately 75 C. In the next step, the brine is heated to the
evaporator inlet temperature, which is between 80 and 90 C. The
salt content of the brine as well as the condenser inlet temperature
can be increased by a partial reux from the evaporator outlet to the
brine storage tank (Mller-Holst, Engelhardt, & Schlkopf, 1999).
Then distillate can be collected in a vessel and the brine goes also
to saline water tank to recover a portion of the heat.
6.2.3. Water desalination powered by solar photovoltaics (PV)
Solar photovoltaic (PV) systems directly convert sunlight into
electricity by using solar cells made from silicon or other semicon-
ductor materials and are connected together to form a PV module,
which can then supply power to the desalination unit. The PV
generator can be connected either with RO or ED water desalina-
tion technology, as described previously (Mahmoud & Ibrik, 2006).
Fig. 15 shows the assembly of a RO desalination plant coupled with
a photovoltaic generator. This conguration includes a set of bat-
tery blocks to stabilize the energy input to the RO unit and to
compensate for solar radiation variations, a charge controller to
protect the battery block from deep discharge and overcharge, and
a RO unit to desalinate the water.
7. Economics and performance of desalination processes
Geographically, the largest market of desalination will continue
to be the Middle East and Gulf region, where the combination of
rapidly growing populations, depleted groundwater resources and
the retirement of capacity built during the oil boom years will
require upgrading and doubling of the total capacity of production
(The outlook, 2012). However Asia-Pacic is expected to experi-
ence a higher growth rate aided by its rapidly developing economy,
urbanization and population growth while America and Europe
continue to be a steady market in which desalination plants are
currently used for preserving rapidly depleting groundwater as an
alternative water source (Water Pump, 2012).
The desalination industry has achieved signicant technologi-
cal advancements in order to meet the growing demand for high
corrosion resistance materials, energy efciency and reliability.

Fig. 16. Cost of thermal and RO desalination processes (Lattemann et al., 2010; SWRO, 2011).
 M. Shatat et al. / Sustainable Cities and Society 9 (2013) 6780 77

Table 1
Cost of desalinated water in thermal processes.

Desalination process Capacity of desalination plant (m3 /day) Desalination cost per m3 (US$)

Multi effect distillation MED Less than 100 2.510

12,00055,000 0.951.95
Greater than 91,000 0.521.01

Multi stage ash MSF 23,000528,000 0.521.75

Vapour compression 10001200 2.012.66

Fig. 17. Development of achievable energy consumption and cost in RO desalination processes.

However, the desalination processes require large amounts of Table 2

Cost of desalinated water in membrane (RO) plants (Al-Wazzan, Safar, & Ebrahim,
energy which is expensive and costly in environmental pollution
2002; IDA, 20062007; Jaber & Ahmed, 2004; Sambrailo, Ivic, & Krstulovic, 2005;
where large commercial desalination plants using fossil fuel are in Voivontas, Misirlis, Manoli, Arampatzis, & Assimacopoulos, 2001; Wilf & Bartels,
use in most of the world. Many economic studies of water desali- 2005; Zejli, Benchrifa, Bennouna, & Zazi, 2004).
nation costs appear regularly in water desalination and renewable
Type of feed water Capacity of desalination Desalination cost
energy related publications. Cost estimates of desalinated water plant (m3 /day) per m3 (US$)
per cubic metre can be signicantly inuenced by several factors.
Brackish water Less than 20 5.6312.9
These factors include the capacity and type of desalination facility,
201200 0.781.33
location, feed water either (seawater or brackish water), and labour, 40,00046,000 0.260.54
type of energy (conventional or renewable energy) (Karagiannis &
Seawater Less than 100 1.518.75
Soldatos, 2008). For instance, the phase change water desalination 2501000 1.253.93
processes, which use conventional sources of fuel and energy and 15,00060,000 0.481.62
which usually have large production capacities are more expen- 100,000320,000 0.450.66
sive than membrane plants because of the large quantities of fuel
required to vaporize salt water. Membrane methods are also more
economical for brackish water desalination. Fig. 16 shows the cost and composition of the feed water. Large scale RO plants can
analysis for large scale commercial plants for thermal and RO use brackish water containing total dissolved solids (TDS) of from
desalination processes. 2000 ppm to 10,000 ppm (Delyianni & Belessiotis, 1995) but, as TDS
concentrations increase, the unit cost of the desalinated water also
7.1. Economics of thermal desalination processes increases, as shown in Table 2 (Liu, Rainwater, & Song, 2011). The
cost of brackish water desalination in Middle East was 0.26 $/m3
Thermal process desalination plants are mostly driven by fossil with a TDS concentration of 2300 ppm, whilst the cost for brackish
fuel sources, which add a high cost of desalination per unit cost. water desalination in Florida was 0.27 $/m3 with a concentration
In the case of multi-effect distillation (MED), the cost for large sys- of 5000 ppm (Avlonitis, 2002). Whilst for seawater desalination the
tems with a daily production from 91,000 m3 to 320,000 m3 ranges estimated water production cost for the worlds largest RO seawa-
between 0.52 $/m3 and 1.01 $/m3 . These costs refer to examples of ter desalination plant in Ashkelon, Israel, was 0.52 US$/m3 for a
plants built between 1999 and 2009 with the most recent having capacity of 320,000 m3 /day, (SWRO, 2011) and the cost of an RO
lower costs and the older installations being the most expensive plant in Florida was $0.56/m3 for a capacity of 94,600 m3 /day (Wilf
(Karagiannis & Soldatos, 2008). Table 1 shows the cost of desali- & Bartels, 2005). Table 2 shows typical costs for RO desalination of
nated water using thermal processes. brackish water and seawater (Karagiannis & Soldatos, 2008).

7.2. Economics of water desalination using membrane processes 7.3. Cost analysis of renewable and solar water desalination

Recent developments in membrane materials, pumping and
energy recovery systems have dramatically reduced the energy
consumption in RO desalination processes, as shown in Fig. 17
(Karagiannis & Soldatos, 2008; Stover, 2006). The cost of water
desalination in membrane processes varies according to the type
From the literature reviewed, it has been revealed that the cost
of water produced from desalination systems using a conventional
source of energy, was much lower than those powered by renew-
able energy sources. Generally water desalination prices have fallen
over the recent years due to technical improvements and research
78 M. Shatat et al. / Sustainable Cities and Society 9 (2013) 6780
Table 3
Type of energy supplied and water production cost (Karagiannis & Soldatos, 2008).
Type of Type of Water cost (US$/m3 )
feed water energy (Euro/m3 )
Brackish water Conventional fuel 0.211.06 0.271.38
Photovoltaic cells 4.510.32 5.8513.42
Geothermal 2 2.6
Sea water Conventional fuel 0.352.70 0.463.5
Wind energy 1.05.0 1.36.5
Photovoltaic cells 3.149.0 4.0811.7
Solar collectors 3.58.0 4.5510.40
advancements in technologies. When renewable energy sources
are used, the costs are much higher, and in some cases exceed
10 Euro/m3 , due to the use of the most expensive energy supply
systems. However, this cost is counterbalanced by the environmen-
tal benets. Table 3 summarizes the cost of fresh water when the
desalination systems are powered by conventional and renewable
energy sources.
8. Conclusions and outlook
Water and energy are the most essential pillars for a sustainable
life. The scarcity of water limits the socio-economic development of
many countries in the world especially in developing countries. The
desalination of saline water is proving to be a sustainable resource
of fresh water and is contributing to tackling the worlds water
scarcity. The majority of desalination plants installed in most of
the worlds countries suffering from water shortages are operated
by fossil fuel, however, since the desalination processes are energy
intensive, they are becoming expensive to run and the environ-
mental pollution they produce is increasingly recognized as very
harmful to the environment. The thermal desalination process is
exclusively used for desalination of seawater in the most of oil
rich countries and the RO process becomes the second important
technology on a global scale. Currently RO is considered the rst
choice in many industrialized and developing countries where con-
ventional energy resources are scarce. However, the MSF thermal
distillation will continue to be the largest desalination market for
the foreseeable future because thermal cogeneration facilities pre-
dominate in oil-rich countries of the Middle East (Isabel & Andrea,
2010b).
Recent developments and technical improvements in desalina-
tion technologies have signicantly reduced the cost of desalination
in recent years. The desalination of brackish and seawater will
increase rapidly as technologies develop and demand for fresh
water grows.
The use of renewable energy for desalination is becoming a
reliable and technically mature alternative to the conventional sys-
tems, especially in regions with poor infrastructure, lack of access to
conventional forms of energy, and abundant renewable resources
available. Currently, coupling desalination plants with renewable
energy resources is becoming more attractive due to the rise in
fossil fuel prices and the harmful impact of burning fossil fuels. The
recent developments and improvements in both solar and desali-
nation technologies have made them mature technologies. Thus
the use of solar energy for water desalination in countries in the
Middle East region and Africa which lie on solar energy belt could
be a promising solution and would contribute both towards solving
water scarcity problems and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by
means of an environmentally friendly process.
However the solar distillation may be advantageous for sea-
water desalination, as solar-MED and MSF are recommended
for large-scale solar desalination and other solar applications
have to be investigated such as photovoltaics and solar-thermal
collectors, which could be suitable for different desalination pro-
cesses at a competitive cost and which are well suited to providing
fresh water in remote areas where water and electricity infra-
structure are currently lacking. The connection of RO membrane
technology is considered the most cost-competitive solar desalina-
tion technology and approaches that of conventional desalination
costs. Hence, the integration between solar photovoltaic cells and
membrane water desalination processes could be considered as the
second most competitive alternative for brackish water desalina-
tion (El-Nashar, 2001).
The on-going and future research should focus on the develop-
ment of low cost, affordable, inexhaustible and clean solar energy
technologies which will have a signicant long term benets and
can be integrated with various desalination processes. Although
they are a noticeable developments and improvements on the
desalination processes, further R & D should be carried out to nd
out a new desalination membranes in terms of forward osmo-
sis, and to reduce the energy consumption through an innovative
pumping systems, heat and pressure recovery systems. At the
meantime parallel research on the development of low cost solar
energy technologies should be undertaken to look for a low cost
materials (chemicals, membrane), inexpensive solar collectors, low
and durable PVs materials.
The decision about the adoption of desalination alternative
revolves around a complicated evaluation of local circumstances
such as water demand, available water resources, renewable
energy resources, economics, environmental and social impacts.
Furthermore, there is a need for on-going research and demon-
stration projects to gain experience, knowledge and trust in new
environmentally friendly technologies as well as a state incen-
tives through the introduction of new polices and nancial support.
These measures would most likely result in lower energy consump-
tion and production cost of desalinated water. Meanwhile some
advantages of wastewater desalination over seawater desalination
should also be highlighted and taken into account in any future
research because of cheaper cost and lower energy consumption
in addition to that most of collected wastewater is near the urban
areas which save a transportation cost through utilizing it for land-
scaping activities and industrial use.
Collective and comprehensive research and development pro-
grammes involving all the stakeholders consumers, local
communities, governments, industries, universities and research
institutions are required to develop sustainable water desalination
polices and strategies to tackle the water scarcity and protect the
rapid deterioration in available water resources worldwide. These
programmes should include a holistic, system wide design pro-
cesses of water reuse and desalination technologies with an optimal
processes optimization to minimize waste recover and energy con-
sumption.
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