Energy Efficient Desalination

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Energy efficient seawater desalination in Singapore

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.

At only about 10% of today’s water demand,


the ‘tap’ of desalinated water is expected to
grow to 25% by 2060. Operating one of
Asia’s largest reverse-osmosis plants, 30
million gallons of desalinated water is
produced a day, with a second 70 million
gallon-a-day plant opening in 2013.

The reverse-osmosis technology currently


employed is the same commercially water
purification process used since the early
1970s. It basically involves forcing
seawater against a water permeable Figure 1: Siemens engineer inspecting the seawater desalination
membrane which prevents dissolved salts prototype
and minerals from getting through. The
resulting pure water is then supplied to homes and other users.

However, pressure-based membrane technology in reverse-osmosis faces inherent


economical and technical limitations. The feed pressure applied to seawater that is required
to overcome its osmotic pressure is very high - 800 to 1000 psi, equivalent to the pressure
experienced by a submarine 650m underwater. Substantial energy is required by the pumps
to produce this pressure, making desalination by reverse-osmosis a very energy intensive
process, typically between 3.4 - 4.8 kWh/m3.

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

Electrodialysis (ED) is an electrochemical separation process which selectively removes salt


ions based on their electrical charge by transferring them through semi-permeable ion
exchange membranes charged with a direct current voltage. The electrical potential creates
a driving force to transfer the ions to their respective electrodes. The seawater separates
into the product water which has its salt ions removed, and the concentrate which receives
the salt ions. This process is illustrated in figure 2.
Figure 2: Schematics of the 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.

Continuous Electrodeionisation process

The fundamental idea behind continuous electrodeionisation (CEDI) is the same as


electrodialysis - the transfer of salt ions through semi-permeable membranes charged with
an electrical potential. The key difference is the use of ion exchange resin in CEDI which
increases the efficiency of ion transfer. The resin, found between the membranes, absorb
the salt ions from the inlet water and carry them to the membranes. This process is shown in
figure 3.
Figure 3: Schematics of the continuous electrodeionisation process

Advantages of the new process

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

Contributed by H2PC Asia resource team of E2 writers. Please contact byap@h2pcasia.com

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