Transcript Desalination Issues in the United States California Colloquium on Water April 13, 2004 M. Kevin Price Manager, Water Treatment Engineering and Research Group Bureau of Reclamation Denver, Colorado.

Desalination Issues
in the United States
California Colloquium
on Water
April 13, 2004
M. Kevin Price
Manager, Water Treatment Engineering and Research Group
Bureau of Reclamation
Denver, Colorado
Outline
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Introduction to Desal
Research Roadmap
Current Activities
Next Steps
Available Information
Primary Issues for
Water Resources
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
Water Needs
to be supplied by
- Reuse
- Desalination
- Other New Sources
- Water conservation
- T ransfers
Total Current
Water
Withdrawals
195 Million
Acre Ft/Yr
(17 Million
AF/Yr Public
Use)
89 Million
Acre Ft/Yr
(9 Million AF/Yr for
Public Use)
Year 2000
Population 91 Million
Year 2025
Population 126 million est.
Based on USGS Estimated Use of Water in the US 1995
Primary Issues for Water Resources
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Growth of population and water demand
Drought and decadal climate patterns
Shifting and more complex demand
Water supply (quantity & quality)
Environmental impacts
Global climate change impacts
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
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
Desalination as a Solution
Saline Aquifers
Benefits of Desalination
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Increased supply from non-traditional sources
Drought proofing
Local control
Regional redundancy, security
High quality supply
Reduced costs, improved technology
Avoid competition for limited water sources
(agricultural, urban, environmental)
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
Potential Uses for Desalination
Technologies
• Major Metropolitan Areas
• Industries Requiring Pure Water
• Rural and Native American Drinking
Water
• Treatment of Produced Water from Coal
Bed Methane Production
• With significantly lower costs Agriculture
Desalination Costs
Sea Water Desal
Brackish Desal*
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$650 - 1000/ac-ft
$325 - 650/ac-ft
Water rental/purchase in NM $350/ac-ft
MWD rate
ca. $500/ac-ft
Conservation
$350 - 500/ac-ft
Water Recycling
$400 - 800/ac-ft
Bottled Water (based on $1/liter) $1,200,000/ac-ft
* Very dependent on chemical make up of brackish water
Worldwide Capacity of MSF and RO
from Dave Furukawa, 2003
MSF in Saudi Arabia
from The ABCs of Desalting, available from IDA
MSF Unit in Saudi Arabia
from The ABCs of Desalting, available from IDA
Seawater RO in Spain
Seawater RO in Tampa Bay, Florida
Seawater RO in Tampa Bay, Florida
Decline in Seawater Desalination Costs
Represents Evolution in Technology and
Facility Size
7
6
6.7 mgd
2.6 mgd
$/m3, $/1000g
5
15.8 mgd
$/m3
$/1000g
4
10.5 mgd
28.8 mgd
3
25 mgd
36 mgd
36 mgd
37.5 mgd
2
1
0
Santa
Barbara 1991
Bahamas
1996
Dhekelia
1997
Larnaca 1999 Trinidad 2000 Tampa 2000
Ashkelon 1
2001
Ashkelon 2
2002
Singapore
2003
from Dave Furukawa, 2003
SWRO Improvements
10.00
Unit Improvement (1980 base)
9.00
Cost
Productivity
Reciprocal Salt Passage
Membrane Life
Energy Recovery
8.00
7.00
6.00
5.00
4.00
3.00
2.00
1.00
0.00
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
2005
2010
Year
from Dave Furukawa, 2003
Improvement in Energy Consumption
(SWRO)
35
Energy Consumption, kwh/m3
30
25
Mubeen
com piled
Andrews
(DWEER)
(Vari-Ro)
Childs
ERI @Pt. Hueneme
20
15
10
5
0
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
2005
Year
from Dave Furukawa, 2003
Thousand gallons per MW thermal
Water Production from Seawater
per Unit Energy
1000
800
600
400
200
0
EDR
MSF
MED
RO w/
Pelton
VARI-RO
VARI-RO
DDE
VARI-ROTM, USBR report no. 33
NUMBER OF DESALTING PLANTS
BY STATE
0
1-5
6-19
20-99
> 100
Plants Proposed Around the U.S.
Brackish
Seawater
U.S. Desalination Coalition, 2003
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
Desalination Research Roadmap
• Partnership between
Reclamation and Sandia
National Labs
• www.usbr.gov/pmts/water/
desal.html
• Executive Committee
Resource economist, public health
expert, head of large utility, political
scientist, university professors,
desalination consultants
• National Research Council
Review
Architecture of the Roadmap Process
VISION 2020
DEFINE HIGH LEVEL NEEDS
- Geographic 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)
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
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
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
Saline Aquifers
• Reduce capital and operating
costs
• Protect water quality
• Characterize the saline aquifers
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
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
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%
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
Six Technology Areas
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Membrane Technologies
Thermal Technologies
Recycling/Reuse Technologies
Concentrate Management Technologies
Alternative Technologies
Cross Cutting 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
Research & Demonstration
• Create options
• Share risk of R&D investment
• Show how new technologies and practices
may be more sustainable
• Provide information on cost-effectiveness,
reliability
• Create and share knowledge
• Create confidence in technologies & science
Current Activities – Inland Brackish Water
Photovoltaic/Reverse Osmosis
Tularosa Basin Facility
Current Activities – Inland Brackish Water
Dewvaporation
Enhanced Evaporation Concentrate Disposal
Current Activities – Recycling and Reuse
Zenon Membrane Bioreactor
Mitsubishi Membrane Bioreactor
Current Activities – Seawater Desalination
Nano/Nanofiltration
High Efficiency High
Pressure Pump
Current Activities – Seawater Desalination
Modeling of Seawater Concentrate
MF/UF Pretreatment for
Reverse Osmosis
Current Activities – Irrigation Return Flows
Large-scale reverse osmosis
Reverse osmosis treatment
in the San Joaquin Valley
Next Steps
• Current solicitation for laboratory, pilot, and
demonstration projects
• In-house studies on ‘net new water’, water
portfolio
– Identify obstacles: physical, financial, institutional,
regulatory
– Tools
• Continuation of Roadmapping activities
– National Research Council proposal
– Additional activities
Next Steps
• Desalination Clearinghouse
• USGS study of brackish sources
• Reauthorization of the Water Desalination
Act of 1996
• World Bank, WHO, FAO, MEDRC
Alcatraz Island: A Search for
Sustainability
• No fresh water on island
• 1.4 Million visitors/year
– 5300 people on an average summer
day
• 2-5k turned away
• Sold out 10 days in advance
– Special events (1-2/month)
• 80 staff working daily
Alcatraz Island: A Search for
Sustainability
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Fix cisterns and capture rainwater
Reuse
Desalination
Renewable energy
Information Available from the
Bureau of Reclamation
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/pmts/water/desal.html
Newsletter - www.usbr.gov/pmts/water/wfw.html
Reports - www.usbr.gov/pmts/water/reports.html