Energy Efficient Desalination
Energy Efficient Desalination
Energy Efficient Desalination
Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink. A scenario all too possible for the island-
nation of Singapore. With no natural aquifer or abundance of land, providing a sustainable
source of water for its people is a critical issue. Over the years, the water resources of
Singapore has been built up to comprise of the ‘Four National Taps’ - local catchment water,
imported water, reclaimed water, and desalinated water.
In face of this high energy consumption, more energy efficient solutions for desalination are
needed to ensure a sustainable water resource for Singapore. This impetus led to the
government initiating the ‘Singapore Challenge’ competition in 2007, won by Siemens with
their combined process of electrodialysis (ED) and continuous electrodeionisation (CEDI). In
a pilot facility set up in 2010 with the Public Utilities Board, the process has been
demonstrated to be much more energy efficient, using just 1.8 kWh/m3 – half the energy
required for reverse-osmosis.
Electrodialysis process
After flowing through a series electrodialysis modules, the salt content of the water is too low
for the electrodialysis process to be efficient, and to continue with ED will result in an
exponential increase in energy use. This is where the continuous electrodeionisation
process comes in.
This combined ED-CEDI process possesses a few advantages over the current reverse-
osmosis process. Chief amongst them is the lower energy demand - due to lower operating
pressure, thus pumping requirement. It can also tolerate feed water of lower quality, thus
reducing the amount of pre-treatment needed. The water recovery rate of ED-CEDI is also
higher than reverse-osmosis. All these advantages contribute to increasing the energy
efficiency of seawater desalination by more than 50%.
With the success of the pilot facility established by Siemens and the Public Utilities Board, a
full-scale customer pilot is to be established at the upcoming desalination testing facility in
Tuas by 2014. Improvement to energy efficiency of desalination is a continuous process, in
order to meet Singapore’s aim in creating a more sustainable water supply.
To find out more on the desalination process adopted by Siemens, please see:
http://www.siemens.com/innovation/apps/pof_microsite/_pof-spring-2011/_html_en/drinking-
water.html
http://www.siemens.com/press/en/pressrelease/?press=/en/pressrelease/2011/industry_solutions/iis2
01106205.htm