The correlation between water and energy is currently the focus of several investigations. In particular, desalination is a technological process characterized by high energy consumption; nevertheless, desalination represents the only practicable solution in several areas, where the availability of fresh water is limited but brackish water or seawater are present. These natural resources (energ...

Throughout the world, there are regions of vast extent that have many favorable features, but whose development is principally limited by the lack of fresh water. In arid areas where large-scale development has already occurred, e.g. parts of the Middle East and North Africa, the extraction of fresh water via desalination plants requires very large energy consumption. This motivates the develop...

Throughout the world, there are regions of vast extent that have many favorable features, but whose development is principally limited by the lack of fresh water. In arid areas where large-scale development has already occurred, e.g. parts of the Middle East and North Africa, the extraction of fresh water via desalination plants requires very large energy consumption. This motivates the develop...

China is a country with severe water shortages. Water is becoming scarcer due to population growth, industrialization and urbanization. Recent studies show that by the next 50 years water resources per capita will go down to around 1700 m 3, which is the threshold of severe water scarcity. Especially in North China, water shortage has become a critical constraint factor for socioeconomic develo...

While over 70 per cent of the Earth’s surface is covered by water, most of it is unusable for human consumption. Freshwater lakes, rivers and underground aquifers represent only 2.5 per cent of the world’s total freshwater supply. Unfortunately, in addition to being scarce, freshwater is also very unevenly distributed. The United Nations has compared water consumption with its availability and ...

In the rapidly developing shale gas industry, managing produced water is a major challenge for maintaining the profitability of shale gas extraction while protecting public health and the environment. We review the current state of practice for produced water management across the United States and discuss the interrelated regulatory, infrastructure, and economic drivers for produced water reus...

A large number of resources are dedicated to seawater desalination and will only grow as world-wide water scarcity increases. In arid areas with high temperature and salinity seawater, thermal desalination and power plants (dual-purpose/co-generation plants) are often employed for the production of power and water. In other areas, reverse osmosis is commonly employed. However, both technologies...

The ever increasing demand of water permits the need of alternative water sources for balancing the water supply and demand. Desalination has become a significant alternative water source due to growing demand of water and inadequate conventional water sources in many countries. Desalination is a process of removing excess salts and other dissolved solids from water in order to get clean water ...

Desalination systems driven by renewable energies are limited, and they usually have a limited capacity. They only represent about 0.02% of total desalination capacity. However, many reasons make the use of renewable energies suitable for brackish and seawater desalination. In addition to shortage of fresh water resources, Jordan is suffering from shortages in recoverable commercial energy sour...

Growing populations and periodic drought conditions have exacerbated water stress in many areas worldwide. In response, some municipalities have considered desalination of saline water as a freshwater supply. Unfortunately, desalination requires a sizeable energy investment. However, renewable energy technologies can be paired with desalination to mitigate concern over the environmental impacts...