forward osmosis in the power and desalination sectors

Bringing new technology to the water industry 1 Bringing new technology to the water industry 1

Low-Energy Production of Fresh Water from the Sea - Manipulated Reverse Osmosis

Adel Sharif

University of Surrey & Modern Water plc, UK [email protected]

Network Young Membranes 14, 20-22 September 2012, Imperial College , London

mailto:[email protected]

Bringing new technology to the water industry 2

The Centre for Osmosis Research & Application (CORA)

CORA at University of Surrey – Since it was founded in 2003 it has been leading a rapidly expanding portfolio of research activities in: • Desalination (Membrane & Thermal Processes) • Renewable Energy (e.g. Solar Pond and Hydro Osmotic Power) • Low cost & climate neutral water treatment (electrical, chemical &

mechanical) processes

The long-term mission of CORA is to become a leading centre of excellence in low carbon footprint (sustainable) desalination and renewable energy technologies.

Bringing new technology to the water industry 3 3

Global Challenges

• Water, Food & Energy the most important commodities

for our existence and the survival of our society and

our civilization.

Energy + Water = Food • Food Shortages – A Sleeping Tsunami

• Food, Energy and Water ‘Perfect Storm’ by 2030

CC = GW + GH • Highest global priority -Ensuring an adequate, safe, sustainable

and secure supply of Food, Water and Energy.

Sustainable water, energy and food for ALL


The Perfect Storm? Population growth 20%

Increased demand 50% by 2030 (IEA)

Energy

Water Increased demand

30% by 2030

(IFPRI)

Food Increased demand

50% by 2030

(FAO)

Climate Change

• Source: UK Government Office for Science. Prof. Sir John Peddington Sustainable water, energy and food for ALL

Forecast Water Stress Index in 2015


Climate Change & Water Challenge

• 25,000 people die every day from hunger and water-related diseases • 1.2 billion people, which accounts for approximately 20% of the world’s population, do not have access to safe drinking water

• 50% of the world's population lack sufficient water purification systems

• “Water is likely to become a growing source of tension and fierce competition between nations, if present trends continue, but it can also be a catalyst for co-operation’’ Kofi Anan (2003)


7

Good Ambitions for Water Engineers

By 2020, desalination and water purification technologies will contribute significantly to ensuring a safe, sustainable, affordable, and adequate water supply.

• 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)



Thermal Desalination Membrane Freezing Ion Exchange

Solar Humidification

Multi Stage Flash

MED

Vapour Compression

Reverse Osmosis

Electrodialysis

Direct Freezing

Secondary Refrigerant

Freezing

Desalination Processes

Bringing new technology to the water industry


Desalination Capacity by Technology


Worldwide Capacity of Desalination Plants by Region

Middle East 50.0 %

Africa 5.1%

Asia 11.2%

Europe 13.3%

North America 16.2%

Caribbean 3.5%

• The market size is limited by the cost of the current desalination methods. A huge expansion is expected when affordable desalination methods become available


Desalination ‘top ten trends to watch in water’ due to RO and FO developments

Global desalination capacity grows from

68.3 million m3/day at the beginning of 2011 to

almost 130 million m3/day by the end of 2016


Forward and Reverse Osmosis

Water diffuses naturally through membrane from low concentration side to high concentration side

Pressure is applied to concentrated solution to overcome osmotic pressure and force water through the membrane from the high concentration side to the low concentration side

Water Flow Water Flow

Pressure Membrane Membrane

Forward Osmosis Reverse Osmosis



Reverse Osmosis Desalination Process

Sea Water

Discharge

Post treatment

HPP

Clean Water

Energy Recovery System

Pre-treatment



Electric power 44%

Consumables 3%

Supervision and Labour 4%

Membrane replacement

5%

Maintenance and Parts 7%

Fixed charges 37%

Cost Structure for a Reverse Osmosis Desalination of Seawater

Current seawater RO plants operate at about 5 kWh/m3 with ERS.



Energy consumption of different RO process stages

Source: M. Wilf, Int. Conf. on Desalination Costing, Limassol, 2004.

High-pressure pump, 84.40%

Abstraction, 4.50%

Various, 1.80%

Product transfer pump, 6.70%

Pre-treatment, 2.60%


Development of achievable energy consumption in RO desalination processes

0123456789

Ener

gy c

onsu

mpt

ion

[kW

h/m

3 ]

1980 1990 2000 2001 2004

Historical time lineSources.: Fritzmann, et. al, Desalination 216 (2007) 1–76 MacHarg and R. Truby, Desalination & Water Reuse Q., 14(3) (2004) 1–18.



The Trade-off Between Capital Cost and Energy Consumption for Practical Desalination System



UK’s first large-scale desalination plant at Beckton, East London. (opened in 2010)

150 million liters per day and supply 1 million people. Powered by Renewable Energy (Biodiesel and future by Wind power

Since 1970, Jersey has had a desalination plant that provides an alternative water source for the island South East Water also conducted a 2005-2007 desalination trial at Newhaven, East Sussex. Plans to build a full-scale plant at Newhaven were deemed too expensive and environmentally-problematic at the end of the pilot scheme.

UK Move to Desalination


Desalination for the UK

Negative views: Consumes a lot of energy; Makes no sense in a country that often drowns in rain; Too expensive and costly; Produces concentrated brine that is pumped back into the sea, this

damages marine life and could destroy fish stocks..

Positive views: Provides a reliable and sustainable source of water; The process is becoming more efficient; In areas that are particularly water stressed it may be the only option.


The UK Government plans to build 500,000 new homes in the South East of England area, which would further increase

the stress on the existing water resources. Thames Water’s 25 year resources plan identifies provision for a

second desalination plant in the 2020s.

Southern Water propose the development of a desalination plant

in the 2020s.

UK Future Desalination Plans


Alternative Approaches

Power Usage – All Water Sources

Feed Conv. Act Sludge

Pre-treatment RO System Total Treatment

kWhr/m3

Surface water 0.15 - 0.3

Wastewater 0.3 - 0.6 0.1 - 0.2 0.4 - 0.5 0.8 - 1.0

Wastewater MBR 0.8 - 1.0 0.4 - 0.5 1.2 - 1.5

Brackish (930 - 2200 ppm) 0.1 - 0.3 0.6 - 0.9 0.8 - 1.0

Brackish - Tidal Estuary 0.29 1.38 1.67

Seawater (medium salinity) 0.3 - 1.0 2.0 - 3.0 2.3 - 4.0


Desalination for London

less than 10 per cent of the city's requirements, Enough for 1 million people

1,336,000 m3/day Beckton Desalination plant capacity: = 150,000 m3/day

Average normal water consumption

8 million people 167 litres per person per day


Desalination Energy Cost per Person

£35 per person annually

1 kwh / person/ day A kilowatt-hour, purchased 12 pence

or less 12 Pence per person per day

Energy cost for Desalination per person per year

167 litres per person per day Required energy for treatment & Operation = 5 kWh/m3


Est. Desalination Capital Cost for London

cost approximately £ 1.75 bn

8 million people an investment of about £220 per each person living in the city

New Desalination Plant Capital Cost

The worse Case for 7 million People New Technology, £1500 per m3 /day

Beckton Desalination Plant Capital Cost

Enough for 1 million people £270m for 150,000 m3/day


Proposals Cost (£ billion) £ million per ml/day

Pennines Transfer - Full 9.0 – 15.0 8.2 – 13.6

Pennines Transfer - Partial 1.0 – 1.6 5.0 – 8.0

Wales Transfer - Pipe 0.6 – 1.0 3.0 – 5.0

Wales Transfer - River - 2.4

New Resources - 1.6

Conventional Desalination Technologies

- 1.5 – 6.0

£72 to £121 Extra for each household bill for supply-led water security.

The Environment Agency & The National River Authority 1994-2006

(Dr David Lloyd Owen, Managing Director, Envisager)

Supply Management Solutions Summarised


The Modern Water Story • Research developed at CORA, University of Surrey with eight key inventions & patent applications • The Royal Society Brian Mercer Award for Innovation, 2005 • IPO raised GBP 30m (US$ 60m) • Listed on UK AIM in June 2007 • First pan-European Academic Enterprise Award, 2008 • Sustainability Award 2009 • Institute of Chemical Engineers Water Award, 2011 • The Queen’s Anniversary Prize, 2011 • Development and commercialisation of technologies • Build, Own and Operate • Plant sales

– 1st desal proving plant, Gibraltar, 2008 – 2nd desal and first commercial plant, Oman, 2009 – 3rd evaporative cooling proving plant Oman, 2010 – 1st world’s FO commercial plants (Oman 2011)



Platform Technology: Manipulated Osmosis (MO) Desalination

Regeneration

Osmotic agent

Water molecules

Stage 2: extract water and recover agent for reuse

Stage 2

Stage 1

Osmotic agent

Water molecules NaCl ions

Other ions

Forward Osmosis

Stage 1: create a ‘clean’ intermediary solution

Two stage process



Manipulated Osmosis System

Regeneration Membranes

Seawater or brackishwater feed

Reject from manipulated osmosis system

Product Water

ConcentratedOsmotic Agent

DilutedOsmotic Agent

Forward Osmosis Desalination


Energy Consumption of RO Desalination

Specific energy consumption (kWh/m3) or (KJ/Kg) is usually estimated by

The flow rate of water through a control element of RO membrane, QP as a function of the pump pressure is given by

Qp = Kf·(∆P - ∆Π )

RP

QQP

E f

p

ffs ηη

==.

−−

++

= ff

ps Π

RR

KQ

RE

222

)1(2

αη

Sharif et al, Desalination and Water Treatment, 1, (2009)1001-1013

Bringing new technology to the water industry 30 Bringing new technology to the water industry 30

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

0 1 2 3 4 5

Membrane Element Permeate flow rate (m3/h)

Sepe

cific

Energ

y Con

sump

tion (

kW.h/

m3 )

Theoretical SEC of RO Process

(32 g/l NaCl solution at 50% recovery rate)

CRO

MO

Osmotic Barrier


Benefits of MO Technology

• Significant energy savings (up to 50%) • Minimizes discharges back to the environment • Eliminating scaling and reducing fouling • Membrane self-cleaning and Clean In Place (CIP) systems • Cheaper and longer lifetime membranes, valves and pumps • Lower levels of boron without additional treatment • Reduced chemical consumption • Design Scalability and retrofit is possible • Reduced carbon footprint • Reduced OPEX and CAPEX • More sustainable and cost effective alternative to traditional systems Bringing new technology to the water industry


Production Facility

• Located in Al Khaluf, Oman

• Commissioned November 2009

• Fabricated in UK

• Housed in a 40’ High-cube ISO shipping

container

• Design capacity 100m3/d


Operating Comparison Data


Normalised Flow

FO Plant

RO Plant

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

4.5

5.0

Jan-2010 Feb-2010 Mar-2010 Apr-2010 May-2010 Jun-2010 Jul-2010 Aug-2010 Sep-2010 Oct-2010 Nov-2010 Dec-2010

Norm

alis

ed P

erm

eate

Flo

w (m

3 /h)

New Membranes Installed

30% Decline in Output Over Just Five Months

Cleaning Activity on New Membranes

Membranes Installed August 2009, 4.2 m3/h

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

4.5

5.0

Jan-2010 Feb-2010 Mar-2010 Apr-2010 May-2010 Jun-2010 Jul-2010 Aug-2010 Sep-2010 Oct-2010 Nov-2010 Dec-2010

FO N

orm

alis

ed F

low

(m3/

h)

Source: Water Desalination Report from Global Water Intelligence

• Desalination Technologies ‘Coefficient of Desalination Reality’ scores


Concluding words

• Desalination has the undeniable potential to create much-needed secure water supplies for many water-stressed areas around the world, including the UK.

• Manipulated Osmosis technology is a novel process borne out of original research conducted by the University of Surrey

• This process offers a significant reduction in capital and operating costs, and also has a positive impact on the environment

• On the humanitarian side, if just a small proportion of the 3 million lives lost each year because of water related diseases can be prevented, then something special will have been achieved

Acknowledgments

Thanks to:

The University of Surrey The UK Royal Society Modern Water plc The Qatar Foundation The Medicor Foundation BP Oman Electricity and Water Authority The CORA Team Members

Our thanks also to The Research & Enterprise Support Team of the University of Surrey

CORA


“Affordable water for all”

Basra-Iraq

forward osmosis in the power and desalination sectors

Documents