Desalination 153 (2002) 305311

Thermal and membrane processe economics: optimized

selection for seawater desalination
Jacques Andrianne*, Flix Alardin
Tractebel Energy Engineering, 7 avenue Ariane, B-1200, Brussels, Belgium
Tel. +32 (2) 7737767; Fax +32 (2) 7738510; e-mails: jacques.andrianne@tractebel.com, felix.alardin@tractebel.com

Received 14 January 2002; accepted 30 March 2002

Abstract
While the fuel cost has increased in the past years, the desalinated water demand has also increased sharply,
especially in the deserted areas. The challenge is to be able to meet such future demand, minimizing the water
production costs. The desalination concepts have evolved, achieving substantial progress: desalination thermal
process is moving from MSF to MED, hybrids involving both thermal and membrane process are more and more
implemented. Reduction in cost and the improved economics of desalination plants are essential elements for the
development of communities. Energy, capital, and operating costs are key issues of water desalination economics.
This will lead to an optimized process selection on a case by case approach: the choice will depend on the specific
conditions prevailing on site, such as existing facilities, power and water demand increase, land availability, raw
water quality, quality of water to be produced, ratio between power and water production, ratio between thermal and
membrane desalination. The presentation will focus on these various aspects of seawater desalination economics.
Keywords: Thermal desalination; Membrane desalination; Hybrids; Water cost; Power to water ratio; Optimization

1. Introduction
Water is a precious commodity. One of the
most challenging situation the desalination
community is facing today is how to be able to
*Corresponding author.

meet the sharply increasing water demand at a

cost that can be sustained by the various users.
To reduce the costs and improve the economics
of desalination plants, essential elements are to be
considered: capital costs and operating costs, with
their respective parameters, taking the advantage

Presented at the EuroMed 2002 conference on Desalination Strategies in South Mediterranean Countries:
Cooperation between Mediterranean Countries of Europe and the Southern Rim of the Mediterranean.
Sponsored by the European Desalination Society and Alexandria University Desalination Studies and Technology
Center, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, May 46, 2002.
0011-9164/02/$ See front matter 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

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of the substantial progress the desalination industry

has achieved by increasing the quality and reliability of individual processes, while dropping the
selling price of the product water. Energy savings
by improving the processes efficiency contribute
to the reduction of the global cost and help to
better respect the environment.
The optimized process selection is also a key
issue of water desalination economics, which must
be looked at on a case by case: a thermal process
could be appropriate cost wise for a site, a membrane
process could reach a lower cost for another site,
whereas in other locations the optimum can be
obtained by combining both processes. Local conditions are decisive in this respect.
The integration of power and desalination
systems cannot be ignored when assessing such
optimization. Some areas are mainly in needs of
water whereas others are looking for both water
and electricity.
2. Increasing quality and reliability of individual
desalination processes
The MSF process capacities have increased
from the small 1 MIGD units of the early sixties
to the present day 15 MIGD units installed or the
17 MIGD units to be installed both in the UAE.
While the plant design is not much different
from the first units built, substantial improvements
have been made in the materials selection providing higher reliability in the operation avoiding
many corrosion problems which were severe in
early plants.
The use of materials, such as titanium, which
provides good heat transfer properties with high
corrosion resistance, has further enhanced the
process. The formation of scale, which was not
fully mastered initially, can now be controlled by
the addition of adequate chemicals.
Another limiting factor to increase the plant
size was the difficulty to find reliable high
capacity pumps on the market. Such pumps are
now available and in use.

Early RO plants were developed for the treatment of brackish water and the membranes were
not suitable for use on seawater. Since the early
days, the membranes have been improved in terms
of TDS, productivity, resistance to higher pressure
as well as higher temperature and they are now in
use in seawater RO (SWRO) plants in the Middle
East and elsewhere.
More than ever, the RO process requires good
quality feed water to be successful. The membranes
are very sensitive to suspended solids, certain
chemicals, pollution and biological fouling.
In order to maintain the membranes in good
order and to give them reasonable life, better pretreatments are needed and great care is required
from the operators to ensure that the water chemistry
requirements of the plant are adhered to.
Additional progress has been made by using
deep seawater intakes, improved pre-treatment as
well as better skill operators.
3. Improvement in the processes efficiency
For large units plants (unit size >5 MIGD) the
MSF process is generally implemented for thermal
desalination application, being well proven and
reliable. Considering the process aspects of large
MSF units (size in the range of 10 to 15 MIGD),
there is still some room for optimization in various
fields, such as:
Fouling factors
Wear load
Seawater re-circulation system
Vacuum system
For smaller thermal desalination plants (unit
size up to 5 MIGD), the MED process has made
substantial progress. With the selection of adequate
materials, it allows performant heat transfer rates
with acceptable scaling which can be further
improved by the addition of antiscale chemicals
and the control of top brine temperatures below
70C. In order to improve the thermal efficiency
and reduce the number of cells required, vapor
compression is used. This is where some of the

J. Andrianne, F. Alardin / Desalination 153 (2002) 305311

vapor produced in the last cell is recompressed

and introduced back into the first cell where its
pressure energy is released. The use of vapor
recompression has the effect of reducing heat
energy consumption. Due to the limited number
of cells required in a MED-TVC plant, savings can
be made on capital expenditure compared to a
MSF plant. MED plants require lower auxiliaries
consumption and in the future, due to recent
development, it is likely that MED will be more
and more implemented event for larger sizes. As
far as SWRO is concerned, power is required to
drive the high pressure feed pumps which is used
to raise the seawater feed above its osmotic pressure
(as high as 70 bar or even above) at which pressure
it is delivered to the inlet of the membrane. Product
water is produced nowadays in the ratio of approximately a half of the feed water. The balance of
the feed water is rejected as brine and since this
rejected brine is still at relatively high pressure,
an energy recovery turbine can be fitted to recycle
this energy and so reduce the amount of power
required for the process.
Specific power consumption has been brought
down substantially by using more and more
efficient energy recovery devices, such as hydroturbo charger and pressure exchanger system.
4. Capex key parameters to be considered
4.1. Process related items
4.1.1. Site selection
The site selection is one of the most important
decisions and is not only affecting the cost but
potentially the project schedule.
The basic data, analysis of such, reporting and
decision making can not be dissociated from the
type of process and therefore data collections must
integrate the type of process as well as the related
needs for the plant (sea water intake, outfall,
energy requirements, land availability, environmental, etc.). The site investigations will also deal
with the underground for offshore and onshore
works.

307

Ultimately, conceptual site layouts for the various

envisaged desalination processes will be developed
and will focus on relative merits of the sites.
4.1.2. Desalination process equipment
For the MSF and MED thermal processes, it
includes the evaporator itself as well as the directly
related auxiliaries. When comparing MSF to MED,
the size of each individual unit is a key issue.
As far as the membrane process is concerned,
it includes the RO modules, the directly related
auxiliaries as well as the pretreatment equipment,
which depend on the seawater quality; key issues
are the number of stages and the recovery factor.
4.1.3. Electrical network
The proximity of an electrical network is needed
for the desalination plant whatever the process.
However, the required levels of electricity
consumptions vary quite significantly depending
upon the process. RO process requires approximately 5 kWh/m3 while the thermal processes
would require 3.8 kWh/m3 for a MSF plant and
2.3 kWh/m3 for a MED plant, both last processes
needing also a thermal input. Obviously, the
electrical network needs are process related.
4.1.4. Civil works, water intake and outfall
Desalination site selection is based on several
criteria among which raw water availability
including water intake and outfall.
The type and design of the water intake and
outfall structures will depend on the sea main
parameters and the mass flow rate required by
the desalination process. Civil works including
buildings and foundations are process related and
are bound to the subsoil conditions.
4.1.5. Electromechanical equipment
For MSF and MED thermal processes, most
of the efficient plants operate combined with a
steam generating plant: steam turbine behind heat
recovery boilers associated with gas turbines.

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Reverse osmosis uses electrical energy to run

the high-pressure pump that provides the driving
force to the membrane separation.
Conceptual design principles and installation
of the electro mechanical equipment beside the
desalination plant is thus process related.
4.1.6. Fuel supply equipment
Thermal desalination plant, either MSF or MED,
operates in conjunction with a steam generating
system to provide heat for distillation (boiler associated with power turbine). Fuel supply is therefore
required for that process while reverse osmosis
on the other hand uses electromechanical energy
only to operate the system. Fuel supply equipment
are directly process related.

These aspects should not really impact the

optimization of the process selection.
4.2.3. Engineering and supervision
The extent of engineering activities and
supervision has to be looked at for each project
on a case-by-case basis. The fees will vary depending on the amounts of activities to be achieved:
minimum for monitoring and supervising an EPC
contractor, more substantial if a multi-contracts
approach is foreseen and an architect engineer is
nominated. The amount of engineering and supervision activities being decided, this aspect, which
is not process related, will be neutral in the optimized
process selection.
4.2.4. Financial charges

4.2. Non-process related items

4.2.1. Water distribution network
The water distribution network allows the
product water, either potable water or process
water, to be transported from the production plants
to the end users. The system, consisting mainly
of pipelines and pumping stations, could be existing,
to be completed or to be created, and thus participates to the total water cost.
Besides some chemical equipment linked to
the quality of water to be delivered, it has to be
considered as non-process related and neutralized
in the optimized process selection.
4.2.2. Transportation, erection and commissioning
Cost of transportation, of erection and commissioning are only slightly affected by various
factors linked to the process type of desalination.
For a given water production, the overall
dimension, the total weight to be shipped, the
maintenance of equipment will be different from
a process to another but will have no significant
impact on the total cost of the projects.
The completion time for erection and commissioning are not significantly different.

The financial charges include several expenses

such as project development activities, insurances
fees, and the like. These are not process related
and will not impact on the processes comparison.
5. Opex key parameters to be considered
5.1. Fuel consumption
This parameter is directly process-related. The
thermal process is part of an integrated power and
desalination plant and fuel is feeding a system
producing both water and electricity. Various
types of power systems are associated to a thermal
desalination plant such as gas turbines with heat
recovery boilers, combined cycle, extraction/condensing steam turbines.
The key parameter is the cost of the heat
required to feed the desalination plant.
5.2. Electricity consumption
Electricity consumption is also process-related.
The electricity consumption required in the case
of a membrane process is higher compared to the
electricity feeding the auxiliaries of a thermal
process. Some auxiliaries are similarly consuming
electricity for both processes, such as product water

J. Andrianne, F. Alardin / Desalination 153 (2002) 305311

309

pumping station to the distribution mains, product

water storage stations and the like.

6. Optimized process selection selling price

of the product water

5.3. Electricity export

6.1. Criteria impacting the capex and the opex of

the processes

The excess of electricity produced by an integrated power and thermal process desalination
plant will be exported on the grid and a selling
price will be attached to it.
However the corresponding fuel consumption
has also a price, which has to be taken into account,
when making the overall balance.
5.4. Chemicals
The chemicals are required to operate desalination plants, whatever the process envisaged.
Based on the salt water analysis and on the
desired product water quality from MSF, MED
and/or RO plant, comparison of cost between
chemicals used has to be performed. For thermal
desalination, such as MSF or MED, various
chemicals are used to operate the distiller itself
and the post-treatment of the product water. As
far as RO desalination is concerned, chemicals are
mainly used in the pre-treatment of the raw water.
5.5. Personnel costs
Labor is required to operate and monitor the
plant; whatever is the type of the plant. However,
the complexity of the plant, such as including RO
pretreatment, hybrids as well as integrated power
and desalination requires additional qualification
of the personnel, which is influencing the total
cost. Personnel costs are thus process related.
5.6. Maintenance and overhaul
Maintenance and overhaul shall be determined
in order to ascertain the total cost of the product
water. These costs include materials, supplies and
labor. More specifically for RO plants, the performance of the membranes are degrading over
the time and, subject to the utilization of the plant,
membrane replacement costs are significant over
the lifetime of such processes.

There are quite a number of criteria impacting

the Capex and the Opex of the thermal and membrane processes; some of them are listed below.
6.1.1. Quality, TDS and temperature of the
seawater
Whereas there is no such impact of the seawater quality on distillation, poor seawater quality
will require a sophisticated pretreatment for RO,
if feasible.
Distillation can accommodate with high TDS,
low TDS giving a real advantage to the RO process.
High seawater temperature will substantially favor
the RO, low seawater temperature increasing the
output of the distillers.
6.1.2. Salinity of the product water
Various end users will require each a specific
product water quality: municipalities will look at
potable water, the industry to process water; this
product water quality will directly impact the process
selection in terms of distillation or RO or even
hybrids, will constitute the basis for the posttreatment design as well as the potential blending
with water from existing wells.
6.1.3. Existing facilities
It is not neutral on the process selection if there
are existing facilities and of which type they are;
to illustrate the issue, let us focus on some typical
cases:
On a specific site, is it worth to install distillation fed by steam produced by new heat
recovery boilers behind existing gas turbines?
On another site, is it proven interesting to add
a new RO plant to an existing power and MED
plant, creating hybrid desalination?
To which extent a new nanofiltration plant

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installed upstream of existing distillation facilities will increase the total product water output?
Is it worth using existing wells to blend their
water with the product water obtained from
new seawater desalination plants?
6.1.4. Power and water demand increase
Power and water demand increase can vary
significantly from a country to another if not from
region to region. A strong water demand increase
coupled with a stable electricity demand will favor
the installation of RO processes.
When both the power and water demand are
increasing, the key issue is the relative power
demand increase compared to the water demand
increase, which will impact the design and the
concept of the integrated power and desalination
systems.
The same applies when the water demand is
steady during the year whereas there is a drastic
difference in the power demand between the
summer season and the winter time.
6.1.5. Ratio between power and water production
Typical power to water ratios (PWR) are listed
here below for various technologies:
PWR
Backpressure steam turbine, MSF
5.0
Extraction-condensing steam turbine, 10.0
MSF
Combined cycle, MSF
18.0
Reverse osmosis, RO
0.81.5
It is worth to note that the combined cycle
distillation plant leads to very high PWR, which
will provide a substantial amount of unused power
capacity in the wintertime.
As in the wintertime the demand for power is
low, whereas the water demand is steady through
the whole year, a good opportunity is there to
introduce electrical driven desalination process
like RO to complement with power and thermal
desalination plant.

This hybrid approach could lead to the lowest

total investment cost, would introduce flexibility
in the production and would lower the cost of the
product power and water.
6.1.6. Ratio between thermal and membrane
desalination
Taking into consideration an integrated combined cycle and hybrid desalination system:
the thermal desalination plant will be sized and
designed to a GOR that maximizes the benefits
of cogeneration and hybridization;
the SWRO plant that will be combined with
the thermal plant will be sized to meet the
balance of water demand and, if possible, to
optimize the SWRO to thermal plants output
ratio.
6.2. Seawater desalination price structure
From the above considerations, it is understood
that there is no general and unique solution to
seawater desalination and that optimized process
selection has to be conducted on a case-by-case
basis; the choice will primarily depend on the
numerous specific conditions prevailing on site.
However, based on statistical data, a general trend
on the seawater desalination price structure can
be given, keeping a range for some Capex/Opex
items (Table 1).
6.3. Selling price of the product water cases
history
Three cases history are provided here below,
two of them dealing with thermal desalination of
Gulf seawater, the other one dealing with a RO
process on Mediterranean water.
6.3.1. Desalination in the Northern Emirates
(UAE) year 1998

Small size: 21.5 MIGD on each site (MED)

High salinity of the raw water
Potable water as product water, brackish water
wells available for mixing

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311

Table 1
Seawater desalination price structure

Thermal

SWRO

Capex
Intake and outfall structures
Contribution from steam generating plant
Desalination process equipment
Civil works

%
1015
515
7072
5

Capex
Intake and outfall structures
Pre-treatment including civil works
Equipment
Membranes
Civil works

%
520
510
4050
2535
5

Opex
Electrical consumption and heat input
Maintenance and overhaul
Chemicals
Personnel costs

%
6080
1015
8
10

Opex
Electrical consumption
Maintenance and overhaul
Chemicals
Personnel costs

%
5060
2026
10
12

Steam available from existing gas turbine

through heat recovery boiler
Price of water: circa US$1.5/m3
6.3.2. Cogeneration of power and water in
Taweelah A1 new installation (UAE) year
2000
Combined cycle (circa 1000 MW) and MED
process (circa 50 MIGD = 143.5 MIGD)
High salinity of the raw water
Potable water as product water
Price of water: circa US$0.75/m3
Price of electricity: circa US$0.03/kWh
6.3.3. Ashkelon year 2001

RO plant: 100,000 m3/d

Mediterranean water 3940 g/l
Potable water as product water
Zero land cost
Low energy cost
Price of water: US$0.53/m3

In view of the above cases history, it can be

seen that the cost of desalinated seawater has been

reduced drastically during the recent years; in the

future, one can believe that this trend will carry
on by applying together several improvements in
terms of higher reliability of plants, better efficiencies, further development of hybrids and better
water management; improved water management
includes limiting the leakages, limiting the water
consumption by an adequate design of the end
users equipment, adapting the water quality to the
real needs of the end users. These are the challenges
for the coming years.
References
[1] L. Awerbuch, Integration of desalination and power:
the challenge in the Middle East, Paper presented at
Middle East Energy 2001, Dubai, 810 October 2001.
[2] C. Sommariva, L. Awerbuch, H. Hogg and K. Callister,
Matching power and desalination by combining
thermal and membrane process: the alternative to
improve flexibility and performance, IDA World
Congress on Desalination and Water Reuse, Manama,
Bahrain, 813 March 2002.
[3] J. Andrianne, Power and desalination integrated
systems: todays trends, 4th Annual IDS Conference,
Haifa, Israel, 1213 December 2001.