Freshwater and energy are essential commodities for well being of mankind. Due to increasing population growth on the one hand, and rapid industrialization on the other, today's world is facing ...unprecedented challenge of meeting the current needs for these two commodities as well as ensuring the needs of future generations. One approach to this global crisis of water and energy supply is to utilize renewable energy sources to produce freshwater from impaired water sources by desalination. Sustainable practices and innovative desalination technologies for water reuse and energy recovery (staging, waste heat utilization, hybridization) have the potential to reduce the stress on the existing water and energy sources with a minimal impact to the environment. This paper discusses existing and emerging desalination technologies and possible combinations of renewable energy sources to drive them and associated desalination costs. It is suggested that a holistic approach of coupling renewable energy sources with technologies for recovery, reuse, and recycle of both energy and water can be a sustainable and environment friendly approach to meet the world's energy and water needs. High capital costs for renewable energy sources for small-scale applications suggest that a hybrid energy source comprising both grid-powered energy and renewable energy will reduce the desalination costs considering present economics of energy.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
To meet surging water demands, water reuse is being sought as an alternative to traditional water resources. However, contamination of water resources by trace organic compounds (TOrCs), including ...pharmaceuticals, personal care products, disinfection byproducts, and industrial chemicals is of increasing concern. These compounds are not readily removed by conventional water treatment processes and require new treatment technologies to enable potable water reuse. Forward osmosis (FO) has been recognized in recent years as a robust process suitable for the treatment of highly impaired streams and a good barrier to TOrCs. To date, at least 14 studies have been published that investigated the rejection of various TOrCs by FO membranes under a variety of experimental conditions. In this paper, TOrC rejection by FO has been critically reviewed, evaluating the effects of membrane characteristics and orientation, experimental scale and duration, membrane fouling, feed solution chemistry, draw solution composition and concentration, and transmembrane temperature on process performance. Although it is important to continue to investigate the removal of diverse TOrCs by FO, and especially with new FO membranes, it is critically important to adhere to standard testing conditions to enable comparison of results between studies. Likewise, feed concentration of TOrCs during FO testing must be environmentally relevant (most commonly 10–100 ng/L range for most wastewaters) and not excessively high, and in addition to testing TOrC rejection in clean feedwater, the effects of real water matrix and membrane fouling on TOrC rejection must be evaluated.
Full text
Available for:
IJS, KILJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM
Extracting, delivering, and disposing water requires energy, and similarly, many processes for extracting and refining various fuel sources and producing electricity use water. This so-called ...‘water–energy nexus’, is important to understand due to increasing energy demands and decreasing freshwater supplies in many areas. This paper performs a country-level quantitative assessment of this nexus in the MENA region. The results show a highly skewed coupling with a relatively weak dependence of energy systems on fresh water, but a strong dependence of water abstraction and production systems on energy. In case of Saudi Arabia it is estimated that up to 9% of the total annual electrical energy consumption may be attributed to ground water pumping and desalination. Other countries in the Arabian Gulf may be consuming 5–12% or more of total electricity consumption for desalination. The results suggest that policy makers should explicitly consider energy implications in water intensive food imports and future restructuring of water demand. This will help in making more integrated decisions on water and energy infrastructure systems. An integrated assessment may in some cases favor water reuse and changes in the agricultural sector as opposed to the expansion of energy intensive and financially expensive desalination systems.
► The water–energy nexus in MENA has a highly skewed coupling. ► Energy production systems are weakly dependent on fresh water. ► Water abstraction and production is strongly dependent on energy. ► In Arabian Gulf countries, 5–12% or more of total electricity consumption is for desalination. ► Energy implications in water intensive food imports should be included in policy considerations.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
● Wastewater treatment technologies under microgravity were reviewed.● Wastewater treatment challenges under microgravity were discussed.● Potential solution strategies are suggested.
Exploring the ...vast extraterrestrial space is an inevitable trend with continuous human development. Water treatment and reuse are crucial in the limited and closed space that is available in spaceships or long-term use space bases that will be established in the foreseeable future. Dedicated water treatment technologies have experienced iterative development for more than 60 years since the first manned spaceflight was successfully launched. Herein, we briefly review the related wastewater characteristics and the history of water treatment in space stations, and we focus on future challenges and perspectives, aiming at providing insights for optimizing wastewater treatment technologies and closing the water cycle in future.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Recycling water from municipal wastewater offers a reliable and sustainable solution to cities and regions facing shortage of water supply. Places including California and Singapore have developed ...advanced water reuse programs as an integral part of their water management strategy. Membrane technology, particularly reverse osmosis, has been playing a key role in producing high quality recycled water. This feature paper highlights the current status and future perspectives of advanced membrane processes to meet potable water reuse. Recent advances in membrane materials and process configurations are presented and opportunities and challenges are identified in the context of water reuse.
Full text
Available for:
IJS, KILJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM
This study examined water quality, naturally-occurring radioactive materials (NORM), major ions, trace metals, and well flow data for water used and produced from start-up to operation of an oil and ...gas producing hydraulically-fractured well (horizontal) in the Denver-Julesburg (DJ) Basin in northeastern Colorado. Analysis was conducted on the groundwater used to make the fracturing fluid, the fracturing fluid itself, and nine flowback/produced water samples over 220days of operation. The chemical oxygen demand of the wastewater produced during operation decreased from 8200 to 2500mg/L, while the total dissolved solids (TDS) increased in this same period from 14,200 to roughly 19,000mg/L. NORM, trace metals, and major ion levels were generally correlated with TDS, and were lower than other shale basins (e.g. Marcellus and Bakken). Although at lower levels, the salinity and its origin appear to be the result of a similar mechanism to that of other shale basins when comparing Cl/Br, Na/Br, and Mg/Br ratios. Volumes of returned wastewater were low, with only 3% of the volume injected (11millionliters) returning as flowback by day 15 and 30% returning by day 220. Low levels of TDS indicate a potentially treatment-amenable wastewater, but low volumes of flowback could limit onsite reuse in the DJ Basin. These results offer insight into the temporal water quality changes in the days and months following flowback, along with considerations and implications for water reuse in future hydraulic fracturing or for environmental discharge.
Display omitted
•Comparison of ground water, fracturing fluid, flowback, and produced water over time•TDS, metals, and anion data minimally changed over time in this DJ-Basin well.•COD declined overtime and only ~30% of the volume injected returned over the study.•Changing water quality impacts upon treatment and management were described.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Zero liquid discharge (ZLD)a wastewater management strategy that eliminates liquid waste and maximizes water usage efficiency has attracted renewed interest worldwide in recent years. Although ...implementation of ZLD reduces water pollution and augments water supply, the technology is constrained by high cost and intensive energy consumption. In this critical review, we discuss the drivers, incentives, technologies, and environmental impacts of ZLD. Within this framework, the global applications of ZLD in the United States and emerging economies such as China and India are examined. We highlight the evolution of ZLD from thermal- to membrane-based processes, and analyze the advantages and limitations of existing and emerging ZLD technologies. The potential environmental impacts of ZLD, notably greenhouse gas emission and generation of solid waste, are discussed and the prospects of ZLD technologies and research needs are highlighted.
Full text
Available for:
IJS, KILJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM
The IWA Publishing journals Water Reuse and Water Science and Technology have been successfully enrolled in the catalog of high-quality journals in the field of environmental science in China. The ...catalog was organized by the China Association for Science and Technology. After a rigorous procedure of selection, evaluation, publicity, and review by the expert panel led by the Chinese Society for Environmental Sciences, 161 journals (including 115 English journals and 46 Chinese journals) were finally enrolled in the catalog.
PDF
