Issue 7, 2021

Emerging investigator series: toward the ultimate limit of seawater desalination with mesopelagic open reverse osmosis

Abstract

Seawater desalination has become an important tool to attain global water security and sustainability. Among the available technologies, reverse osmosis (RO) has become the golden standard for seawater desalination due to its unparalleled energy efficiency. While RO is already efficient after development for half a century, there remains room for over 50% further reduction in energy consumption that can translate into tens of terawatt hours of potential annual energy saving. However, this significant energy saving cannot be achieved under the conventional paradigm of on-ground RO. In this analysis, we assess the idea of operating RO with open modules several hundred meters below the ocean surface (i.e., the mesopelagic zone). This new process, namely mesopelagic open reverse osmosis (MORO), can potentially push the energy consumption of seawater desalination to its theoretical limit. We first describe the concept of MORO, and then examine both the theoretical potential of energy saving and the practical challenges facing the implementation of MORO. Our analysis provides a theoretical framework for the future development of MORO for more sustainable desalination.

Graphical abstract: Emerging investigator series: toward the ultimate limit of seawater desalination with mesopelagic open reverse osmosis

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
27 फरवरी 2021
Accepted
22 अप्रैल 2021
First published
29 अप्रैल 2021

Environ. Sci.: Water Res. Technol., 2021,7, 1212-1219

Author version available

Emerging investigator series: toward the ultimate limit of seawater desalination with mesopelagic open reverse osmosis

S. Lin and S. Veerapaneni, Environ. Sci.: Water Res. Technol., 2021, 7, 1212 DOI: 10.1039/D1EW00153A

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements