Techno-economic Analysis of Renewably-powered Desalination in the UAE

Abstract

Water scarcity is one of the main challenges in the United Arab Emirates with almost all potable water requirements being covered by fossil fuel-driven desalination plants. The energy intensity of desalination makes it a costly option both in terms of fiscal and environmental impact for the country and thus gives strong motivation for the use of renewables. This study investigates the technical and economic aspects of selected couplings of seawater desalination technologies and renewable energy, particularly geothermal and wind energy. Renewably-driven desalination schemes are proposed and assessed from a techno-economic point of view within the context of the UAE by employing a combination of technical modelling and cost analyses. Considering that the primary criterion for investment in any novel technology is the economic feasibility, emphasis was given on the lifetime cost estimation of the proposed renewable energy-desalination couplings. The study is divided into three distinct sections. The first section statistically evaluates and compares the capital cost of reverse osmosis plants located in two regions: GCC and southern Europe. The results obtained from this extensive study can serve as a basis for any preliminary cost estimation of desalination in these two regions. The second part of this study looks into geothermal desalination, specifically by employment of local low-enthalpy geothermal resources. The costs of geothermal reverse osmosis and geothermal multiple effect distillation for supplying potable water are evaluated and compared. Finally, the third section of the thesis examines the concept of using a variable load reverse osmosis plant to build emergency storage capacity for the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. The study places and examines the concept of a wind-driven desalination plant within the context of Abu Dhabi’s pioneer project of strategic aquifer water storage and recovery in the desert of Liwa. Again, the evaluation focuses primarily on the lifetime costs incurred by such a concept and investigates the most influential parameters for cost-effectiveness and performance.

Date of Award	May 2015
Original language	American English
Supervisor	Hassan Arafat (Supervisor)