Transcript Desalination Research and Technology

National Desalination Agenda
How desalination fits into the water management
equation…….bringing research to reality
Del Holz
Manager, Resource Management and Planning Group
Bureau of Reclamation
July 22, 2003
Primary Issues for Water Resources
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Growth of population and water demand
Shifting and more complex demand
Water quality
Environmental impacts
Decadal climate patterns and drought
1902 Population – 11 million
1990 Population – 76 million
2000 Population – 91 million
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
The Approaching Water Supply
Problem in the 17 Western States
Total Current
Water
Withdrawals
195 Million
Acre Ft/Yr
(17 Million
AF/Yr Public
Use)
Year 2000
Population 91 Million
Water Needs
to be supplied by
- Reuse
- Desalination
- Other New Sources
- Water conservation
- T ransfers
89 Million
Acre Ft/Yr
(9 Million AF/Yr for
Public Use)
Year 2025
Population 126 million est.
Based on USGS Estimated Use of Water in the US 1995
Drought
National Research Council on
Technology and Water Supply
“As scarcity continues to intensify, the
search for new supplies can be
enhanced by
1) the development of new supplyenhancing technology and
2) reducing the costs of some existing
technologies.”
NRC: Envisioning the Agenda for Water Resources
Research in the 21st Century. June 2001
Water Resources May be
Augmented by New Technology
“The single most frequent failure
in the history of forecasting has been
grossly underestimating
the impact of technologies”
….Peter Schwartz from
The Art of the Long View
Desal as a Solution: Potentially Usable
Water from US Saline Aquifers
Potential Uses for Desalination
Technologies
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Major Metropolitan Areas
Rural and Indian Drinking Water
Industries Requiring Pure Water
Treatment of Produced Water from Coal
Bed Methane Production
• With significantly lower costs Agriculture
Desal costs are still high, but trends
show costs are closing in on other
water management tools
Sea Water Desal
Brackish Desal*
$650 - $1000/ac-ft
$325 – 650/ac-ft
To compare (a southern California example):
• MWD rate
• Conservation
• Water Recycling
ca. $500/ac-ft
$350-$500/ac-ft
$400-800/ac-ft
* Very dependent on chemical make up of brackish water
Cost in $ U.S. per thousand gallons
Decline in Seawater Desalination Costs
Represents Evolution in Technology and
Facility Size
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
1991
Santa
Barbara, CA
1996
Bahamas
1997
Dhekelia,
Cyprus
1999 Larnaca,
Cyprus
2000
Trinidad
2000
Tampa Bay,
FL
2001
Ashkelon,
Israel
Opportunities to Further Reduce Costs
• Low to No Further Cost Reduction Potential
• Creative Financing
• Co-location with existing power plants
• Some opportunity from regionalization
Need to encourage utilities to join together
• Highest Potential
Better technology through R&D and Technology
Transfer which can also help to enhance competition
in industry
NRC on Membranes
“…the development of new, more effective
reverse osmosis membranes and improved
technologies for pretreating water have the
potential to reduce the cost of desalting to
affordable levels in regions where energy is
relatively inexpensive, brine disposal can be
managed, and demand is local.”
Hierarchy of the Nation’s Water
Solution Toolbox
Solutions to the Nation's Water Supply Issues
Demand Mitigation
Pricing
Conservation activities
Supply Enhancement
Management approaches
Technology approaches
Water transfers
Upgrade impaired waters
Dam and diversion
Improve reuse rates
Desalination Roadmap
• Partnership between Reclamation
and Sandia National Labs
• www.usbr.gov/water/desal.html
– To download a pdf of the roadmap
– To provide comments on the roadmap
Architecture of the Roadmap Process
VISION 2020
DEFINE HIGH LEVEL NEEDS
-> CASE STUDIES
DEVELOP
ALTERNATIVE
FUTURE COST
SCENARIOS
DEFINE CRITICAL OBJECTIVES
-> Define High-Level Objectives
-> Identify Specific Performance Metrics & Targets
IDENTIFY TECHNOLOGY AREAS
AND SPECIFIC RESEARCH NEEDS
-> Basic Science and Technology Areas
-> Specific R&D Needs
Roadmap Development - Vision
By 2020, desalination and water purification technologies will
contribute significantly to ensuring a safe, sustainable,
affordable, and adequate water supply for the Unites States.
Safe:
• Meet drinking water standards
• Meet agriculture and industry standards
• Enhance water security
Sustainable:
• Meet today’s need without compromising our future supplies
Affordable:
• Provide future water at a cost comparable to today’s
Adequate:
• Assure local and regional availability through periods of
episodic shortages (droughts)
Case Studies - Basis for Needs
Inland Urban Areas
Current Challenges
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Sustainability is questionable
Provide affordable water and address
the need for reclamation and reuse
Assure adequate supplies through
increased recycling, upgrading
impaired water, mitigating demand,
and purchasing water rights
Las Vegas, NV
Phoenix, AZ
El Paso, TX
Desalination Needs
• Reduce the cost and enable the
disposal of concentrate
• Reduce the cost for desalination
processes
• Develop beneficial uses for
concentrate
• Manage salt on a regional basis
Case Studies - Basis for Needs
Coastal Urban Communities
Current Challenges
• 54 % of the US population lives in coastal
regions and this percentage is growing;
therefore, demand must be managed.
• Tampa Bay – manage aquifer
replenishment and pressure on
environment
• Southern California – reduce reliance on
Colorado River Water
• Coastal Texas – manage subsidence and
balance water demands
8000.0
1,000
US GNP
800
5000.0
600
4000.0
3000.0
400
2000.0
US Water Withdrawals
200
1000.0
0.0
0
1900
1905
1910
1915
1920
1925
1930
1935
1940
1945
1950
1955
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
Billions of 1996$
6000.0
Cubic kilometers per year withdrawan
7000.0
Desalination Needs
• Reduce the cost of desalting
seawater
• Maintain biologic stability of
reclaimed water
• Reduce reliance on surface
water to protect estuaries and
coastal regions
• Decrease reliance on remote
sources of water
Case Studies - Basis for Needs
Rural Inland Communities
Current Challenges
• Provide adequate, affordable
supplies of water for agriculture
and municipal consumers while
ensuring that aquatic
environments are protected.
Alamogordo, New Mexico
Desalination Needs
• Reduce capital and operating
costs
• Protect water quality
• Characterize the saline aquifers
Saline Aquifers
Case Studies - Basis for Needs
The Mid Atlantic
Current Challenges
• Protect water supply for public health
and sanitation from environmental
hazards
• Keep surface water flowing in streams,
lakes, estuaries and bays
• Prevent groundwater overdraft
Likely Derivative Benefits
from Desalination Advances
• Assure safety of water in heavilyurbanized areas through ondemand removal technologies for
emerging contaminants
• Develop true indicators of
contaminants
Case Studies - Basis for Needs
Oil, Gas and Coal Basins
Current Challenges
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Opportunity to convert produced
water disposal cost to new water
supply
Coal-bed methane production
techniques are unsuited to
produced water injection
Desalination Need
• Develop cost effective
pretreatment technologies for
small hydrocarbon residuals
• Facilitate cost effective
disposal of concentrate
• Assure water quality
standards are met
Critical Objectives Driven by the Need to
Provide Safe Water
Near-term Critical Objectives
• Develop on-demand removal
technologies
• Remove 60% of synthetics
• 4-6 logs (microbial removal)
• Remove endocrine disruptors,
MTBE, nitrosamines, perchlorate
• Develop true indicators (not just
SDI /turbidity)
• Surface water/land disposal:
Develop science related
concentrate-specific regulations
related to dispersion modeling of
mixing zones/ ion imbalance.
• Subsurface injection: Large scale
regional characterization of US
subsurface injection capability
Long-term Critical Objectives
• Add all other concentrate
specific regulations, refined
geographically and addressing
cumulative issues
• Demonstrate isolation with
hydrologic model of receiving
formation and formation scale
model of subsurface injection
capability of US
Critical Objectives Driven by the Need to
Ensure Adequate Supplies/Sustainability
Near-term Critical Objectives
• Maintain stability of reclaimed
waters over time
• Decrease cost of reclaimed
waters by 25%
• Beneficial use: 5% of concentrate
• Reduce average reject to 15% for
non-surface water applications
Long-term Critical Objectives
• Decrease cost of reclaimed
waters by 80%
• Beneficial use: 15% of
concentrate
• Reduce average reject to 5% for
non-surface water applications
Critical Objectives Driven by the Need to
Keep Water Affordable
Near-term Critical Objectives
• Reduce capital cost by 20%
• Increase energy efficiency by
20%
• Reduce operating costs by 20%
• Reduce cost of ZLD by 20%
Long-term Critical Objectives
• Reduce capital cost by 80%
• Increase energy efficiency by
80%
• Reduce operating costs by 80%
• Reduce cost of ZLD by 80%
Five Technology Areas Provide
Foundation for Next-Generation
Desalination
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Membrane Technologies
Thermal Technologies
Recycling/Reuse Technologies
Concentrate Management Technologies
Alternative Technologies
National Need: Keep Water Affordable
NEAR-TERM
Thermal Technologies
• Forward osmosis
• Clathrate sequestration
• Hybrid – membrane and thermal
Membrane Technologies
• Basic research to improve permeability
• Minimize resistance
• Model/test non-spiral configurations
• Develop new methods of reducing/recovering
energy
• Integrate membrane and membrane system
designs
Reuse/Reclamation Technologies
• Pretreatment
• Filtration
• Biological coating (disinfectant)
• Research to enable prediction of migration
and recovery through aquifers
Novel Technologies
• Capacitive desal
• Nanotubes or large surface areas
• Current swing sorption
Near-term Critical Objectives
• Reduce capital cost by 20%
• Increase energy efficiency by 20%
• Reduce operating costs by 20%
• Reduce cost of ZLD by 20%
MID/LONG-TERM
Mid/long-term Critical Objectives
• Reduce capital cost by 80%
• Increase energy efficiency by 80%
• Reduce operating costs by 80%
• Reduce cost of ZLD by 80%
Concentrate Management Technologies
• Create a “super concentrate” technology – complete solidification of residuals and
100% recapture of water
• Cross-cutting: Develop methods of immobilizing/sequestering the concentrate
stream
• Cross-cutting: Develop beneficial uses for the concentrate stream to improve the
economics of disposal for ZLD processes.
Reuse/Reclamation Technologies
• Enhanced membrane bioreactor technology
• Document the lifecycle economics of water reuse for various applications
Novel Technologies
• Magnetics
• Nanotechnology (active/smart membranes)
Cost of Desalinated Water Decreases
Membrane Technologies
R&D Thrust Areas
Near Term Thrust Areas
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Mechanistic/fundamental approach to membrane design
– CFD of feed channel
– Conduct research to gain understanding of molecular-level effects
– Design-in permeability
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Develop understanding of whole system (based on current knowledge)
– Develop model of optimization
– Research sensitivity of parameters for model
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Develop fundamental understanding of fouling mechanisms to develop indicators
– Understand how to mitigate fouling (Understand biofouling/Optimize operational controls)
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Basic research to improve permeability
– Minimize resistance
– Model/test non-spiral configurations
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Develop new methods of reducing/recovering energy
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Integrate membrane and membrane system designs
Long Term Thrust Areas
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Smart membranes
– Sense contaminant differential across the membrane (in real time), automatically change
performance and selectivity
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Sensor development
– Model compounds for organics/on-line viral analyzer
– Micro/in-situ/built-in EPS sensor to detect biofilms; particulate fouling sensor
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Membrane Research
– Operate in range of pHs (mechanical/chemical cleaning)/
– Adjust removal capability based on feed water quality and removal needs (2014 –
pharmaceuticals removal based on molecular weight, hydrophilicity)
– Biofilm-resistant surfaces
NRC on Membranes
• “Research on pretreatment technologies
for membrane desalting process and on
the causes for membrane fouling in
seawater could go a long way in
stimulating further progress.”
Where do we go from here?
• Roadmapping activities
– NRC Review, May 13, 2003, Golden, CO
– Management Plan – prioritized projects
• 2004 Budget – Western Water Initiative
DOI 2004 Budget & the
Western
Water Initiative
Long-term goal: Stretch existing water supplies to
meet unmet demands in the most cost effective,
least threatening manner possible
– Address present and future challenges to meet
increased demands
– Result and prevent water conflicts across the West
– Continue to serve traditional users and adhere to state
water law
Western Water Initiative: DOI
Science & Technology Components
• Fund pilot projects to prevent crisis-level
water conflicts through use of new
technology & advanced water
management systems
• Reduce costs and improve desalination
• Build collaborative partnerships to ensure
best science is delivered to address
project needs.
• Fund peer reviewed science-based
decision-making
Project at San Patricio Municipal Water
District, TX
Technology Transfer
Membrane Concentrate Disposal Manual
WTCost – Water treatment cost estimation program
sponsored by AMTA
DesalNet- 50 years of full text desal literature
database sold through AWWA
Desalination Planner’s Handbook
Program Homepage - www.usbr.gov/water/desal.html
Newsletter - www.usbr.gov/water/wfw.html
Reports - www.usbr.gov/water/reports.html
The End