Gregory P. Thiel
J.K. Bohlke
Jennifer S. Stanton
John H. Lienhard
Yvana D. Ahdab
2018
<p><span>This paper uses chemical and physical data from a large 2017 U.S. <a title="Learn more about Geological Surveys" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/geological-surveys" data-mce-href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/geological-surveys">Geological Survey</a>groundwater dataset with wells in the U.S. and three smaller international groundwater datasets with wells primarily in Australia and Spain to carry out a comprehensive investigation of brackish groundwater composition in relation to minimum <a title="Learn more about Desalination" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/desalination" data-mce-href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/desalination">desalination</a>energy costs. First, we compute the site-specific least work required for groundwater desalination. Least work of separation represents a baseline for specific <a title="Learn more about Energy Consumption" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/energy-consumption" data-mce-href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/energy-consumption">energy consumption</a>of desalination systems. We develop simplified equations based on the U.S. data for least work as a function of water recovery ratio and a proxy variable for composition, either total dissolved solids, specific conductance, molality or ionic strength. We show that the U.S. correlations for total dissolved solids and molality may be applied to the international datasets. We find that total molality can be used to calculate the least work of dilute solutions with very high accuracy. Then, we examine the effects of groundwater solute composition on minimum <a title="Learn more about energy requirements" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/energy-requirements" data-mce-href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/energy-requirements">energy requirements</a>, showing that separation requirements increase from calcium to sodium for <a title="Learn more about cation" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/cation" data-mce-href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/cation">cations</a> and from sulfate to <a title="Learn more about bicarbonate" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/bicarbonate" data-mce-href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/bicarbonate">bicarbonate</a> to chloride for <a title="Learn more about anion" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/anion" data-mce-href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/anion">anions</a>, for any given TDS concentration. We study the geographic distribution of least work, total dissolved solids, and major <a title="Learn more about ion concentration" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/ion-concentration" data-mce-href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/ion-concentration">ions concentration</a> across the U.S. We determine areas with both low least work and high <a title="Learn more about Water Stress" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/water-stress" data-mce-href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/water-stress">water stress</a> in order to highlight regions holding potential for desalination to decrease the disparity between high <a title="Learn more about water demand" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/water-demand" data-mce-href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/water-demand">water demand</a> and low water supply. Finally, we discuss the implications of the USGS results on <a title="Learn more about water resource" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/water-resource" data-mce-href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/water-resource">water resource</a> planning, by comparing least work to the specific energy consumption of <a title="Learn more about Brackish Water" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/brackish-water" data-mce-href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/brackish-water">brackish water</a> </span><a title="Learn more about Reverse Osmosis" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/reverse-osmosis" data-mce-href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/reverse-osmosis">reverse osmosis</a><span>plants and showing the scaling propensity of major<span> </span><a title="Learn more about electrolytes" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/electrolytes" data-mce-href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/electrolytes">electrolytes</a><span><span> </span>and<span> </span><a title="Learn more about silicon dioxide" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/silicon-dioxide" data-mce-href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/silicon-dioxide">silica</a><span> </span>in the U.S. groundwater samples.</span></span></p>
application/pdf
10.1016/j.watres.2018.04.015
en
Elsevier
Minimum energy requirements for desalination of brackish groundwater in the United States with comparison to international datasets
article