Sergio Genaro Salinas Rodríguez

The growing demand for water in domestic, agricultural, and energy production applications poses a significant challenge for Jordan. This work assesses the role of brackish water desalination as an alternative to alleviate water scarcity in semi-arid regions. Desalination is still limited in its application in Jordan due to high electricity tariffs. Shifting to renewable sources such as solar energy, abundant in the country, is a feasible way to power technologies with a high energy demand. In this work, we study the brackish water desalination plant at the Hashemite University in Jordan that is powered by a photovoltaic (PV) solar system (the HU PV-BWRO). The plant’s performance was evaluated in the context of the water-energy nexus as a hybrid water supply solution. While this work integrates essential elements, such as water availability, technical options, economic viability, and agricultural management, the analysis primarily focuses on the technical and economic aspects related to water, energy, and food. Water assessment results indicate that the groundwater wells near the HU campus are at risk of quality degradation over time, as they have shown a slight increasing trend in salinization from 2015 to 2023. Energy assessment results show a promising performance from the HU PV-BWRO desalination plant, with a specific energy consumption (SEC) value of 1.2 kWh m⁻³ (140% to 400% less energy consumption compared with other Jordanian desalination plants of similar capacity). Unit price comparisons indicate that the energy cost of PV (0.042 USD/m³) is 5 times less than the cost of grid electricity (0.24 USD/m³). The operational cost of the solar desalination plant at full capacity, is USD 0.23/m³. This is about 260% less than the operation cost for local, grid-powered desalination plants. Finally, it is estimated that by operating the plant at 50% of its total capacity, the produced water could be sufficient to irrigate up to 80% of the HU campus to increase agricultural production. This study highlights the importance of decreasing reliance on energy for water and food production, and it shows that the use of solar powered desalination could be used as an example in semi-arid regions, particularly in terms of integrating renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Water quality is a critical issue for the water industry today, and membrane fi ltration a highly effective treatment used to provide clean water for the global population. Experimental processes and methods are being developed for assessing fouling, scaling, performance and modelling of membrane systems, and research is needed to further improve the sustainability and feasibility of these technologies, and to mitigate the challenges of water scarcity for billions of people, particularly in developing countries. This book aims to address this vital issue by bringing together experts in the fi eld to share their learning, including: Membrane processes: microfi ltration (MF), ultrafi ltration (UF), reverse osmosis (RO), forward osmosis (FO) and membrane distillation (MD)Particulate fouling: silt density index (SDI), modifi ed fouling index (MFI-0.45 and MFI-UF)Inorganic fouling and scaling: assessment, characterization tools and mitigationOrganic fouling: size exclusion chromatography (LC-OCD), fl uorescence spectroscopy (FEEM) and transparent exopolymer particles (TEP)Biological fouling: genomic tools, bacterial growth potential (BGP) of seawater and low-nutrient water and optical coherence tomography (OCT)General applications: membrane autopsy and computational fl uid dynamics (CFD) modelling

Water quality is a critical issue for the water industry today, and membrane fi ltration a highly effective treatment used to provide clean water for the global population. Experimental processes and methods are being developed for assessing fouling, scaling, performance and modelling of membrane systems, and research is needed to further improve the sustainability and feasibility of these technologies, and to mitigate the challenges of water scarcity for billions of people, particularly in developing countries. This book aims to address this vital issue by bringing together experts in the fi eld to share their learning, including: Membrane processes: microfi ltration (MF), ultrafi ltration (UF), reverse osmosis (RO), forward osmosis (FO) and membrane distillation (MD) Particulate fouling: silt density index (SDI), modifi ed fouling index (MFI-0.45 and MFI-UF) Inorganic fouling and scaling: assessment, characterization tools and mitigation Organic fouling: size exclusion chromatography (LC-OCD), fl uorescence spectroscopy (FEEM) and transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) Biological fouling: genomic tools, bacterial growth potential (BGP) of seawater and low-nutrient water and optical coherence tomography (OCT) General applications: membrane autopsy and computational fl uid dynamics (CFD) modelling

Water quality is a critical issue for the water industry today, and membrane fi ltration a highly effective treatment used to provide clean water for the global population. Experimental processes and methods are being developed for assessing fouling, scaling, performance and modelling of membrane systems, and research is needed to further improve the sustainability and feasibility of these technologies, and to mitigate the challenges of water scarcity for billions of people, particularly in developing countries. This book aims to address this vital issue by bringing together experts in the fi eld to share their learning, including: Membrane processes: microfi ltration (MF), ultrafi ltration (UF), reverse osmosis (RO), forward osmosis (FO) and membrane distillation (MD) Particulate fouling: silt density index (SDI), modifi ed fouling index (MFI-0.45 and MFI-UF) Inorganic fouling and scaling: assessment, characterization tools and mitigation Organic fouling: size exclusion chromatography (LC-OCD), fl uorescence spectroscopy (FEEM) and transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) Biological fouling: genomic tools, bacterial growth potential (BGP) of seawater and low-nutrient water and optical coherence tomography (OCT) General applications: membrane autopsy and computational fl uid dynamics (CFD) modelling

Water quality is a critical issue for the water industry today, and membrane fi ltration a highly effective treatment used to provide clean water for the global population. Experimental processes and methods are being developed for assessing fouling, scaling, performance and modelling of membrane systems, and research is needed to further improve the sustainability and feasibility of these technologies, and to mitigate the challenges of water scarcity for billions of people, particularly in developing countries. This book aims to address this vital issue by bringing together experts in the fi eld to share their learning, including: Membrane processes: microfi ltration (MF), ultrafi ltration (UF), reverse osmosis (RO), forward osmosis (FO) and membrane distillation (MD) Particulate fouling: silt density index (SDI), modifi ed fouling index (MFI-0.45 and MFI-UF) Inorganic fouling and scaling: assessment, characterization tools and mitigation Organic fouling: size exclusion chromatography (LC-OCD), fl uorescence spectroscopy (FEEM) and transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) Biological fouling: genomic tools, bacterial growth potential (BGP) of seawater and low-nutrient water and optical coherence tomography (OCT) General applications: membrane autopsy and computational fl uid dynamics (CFD) modelling

Water quality is a critical issue for the water industry today, and membrane fi ltration a highly effective treatment used to provide clean water for the global population. Experimental processes and methods are being developed for assessing fouling, scaling, performance and modelling of membrane systems, and research is needed to further improve the sustainability and feasibility of these technologies, and to mitigate the challenges of water scarcity for billions of people, particularly in developing countries. This book aims to address this vital issue by bringing together experts in the fi eld to share their learning, including: Membrane processes: microfi ltration (MF), ultrafi ltration (UF), reverse osmosis (RO), forward osmosis (FO) and membrane distillation (MD) Particulate fouling: silt density index (SDI), modifi ed fouling index (MFI-0.45 and MFI-UF) Inorganic fouling and scaling: assessment, characterization tools and mitigation Organic fouling: size exclusion chromatography (LC-OCD), fl uorescence spectroscopy (FEEM) and transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) Biological fouling: genomic tools, bacterial growth potential (BGP) of seawater and low-nutrient water and optical coherence tomography (OCT) General applications: membrane autopsy and computational fl uid dynamics (CFD) modelling

Water quality is a critical issue for the water industry today, and membrane fi ltration a highly effective treatment used to provide clean water for the global population. Experimental processes and methods are being developed for assessing fouling, scaling, performance and modelling of membrane systems, and research is needed to further improve the sustainability and feasibility of these technologies, and to mitigate the challenges of water scarcity for billions of people, particularly in developing countries. This book aims to address this vital issue by bringing together experts in the fi eld to share their learning, including: Membrane processes: microfi ltration (MF), ultrafi ltration (UF), reverse osmosis (RO), forward osmosis (FO) and membrane distillation (MD) Particulate fouling: silt density index (SDI), modifi ed fouling index (MFI-0.45 and MFI-UF) Inorganic fouling and scaling: assessment, characterization tools and mitigation Organic fouling: size exclusion chromatography (LC-OCD), fl uorescence spectroscopy (FEEM) and transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) Biological fouling: genomic tools, bacterial growth potential (BGP) of seawater and low-nutrient water and optical coherence tomography (OCT) General applications: membrane autopsy and computational fl uid dynamics (CFD) modelling

Jordan was late in adopting seawater and brackish water desalination as a source until the late 1990s and early 2000s. However, ongoing studies are still discussing the technical, economic, and socio-political aspects of brackish water reverse osmosis (BWRO) desalination plants. In this study, the water–energy nexus was considered, in order to highlight the main challenges facing BWRO desalination. We discuss the use of photovoltaic (PV) technology, together with BWRO desalination, as an approach to compensate for ecological, financial, and social challenges in Jordan. For this purpose, the performance of nine existing BWRO desalination plants in the agricultural, domestic, and industrial sectors is assessed. The water performance is assessed based on water consumption, safe yield extraction, plant recovery rate (R, %), and compliance to local and international water quality standards; the Specific Energy Consumption (SEC, kWh/m³) is taken as the main evaluation criterion to assess the energy performance of the BWRO desalination plants; and economic performance is assessed based on the overall cost of water produced per cubic meter (USD/m³). The main environmental component is the brine disposal management practice utilized by each plant. Based on this assessment, the main challenges in BWRO desalination are the unsustainable patterns of water production, mismanaged energy performance, low recovery rates, and improper brine disposal. The challenges in domestic and industrial BWRO desalination, which are completely dependent on the electricity grid, are associated with critical energy and costs losses, as reflected by the high SEC values (in the range of 2.7–5.6 kWh/m³) and high water costs per cubic meter (0.60–1.18 USD/m³). As such, the use of PV solar panels is suggested, in order to reduce the electricity consumption of the assessed BWRO plants. The installation of PV panels resulted in significantly reduced energy costs (by 69–74%) and total costs (by 50–54%), compared with energy costs from the electricity grid, over the lifetime of the assessed BWRO desalination plants.

Rapid population growth and urbanization are two main drivers for the over-abstraction of conventional freshwater resources in various parts of the world, which leads to the situation of water scarcity (per capita availability 3/year). Predictions based on the World Bank projected population data and the FAO AQUASTAT database for freshwater availability show that by 2050, 2 billion people living in 44 countries will likely suffer from water scarcity, of which 95% may live in developing countries. Among these, the countries that will likely be most strongly hit by water scarcity by 2050 are Uganda, Burundi, Nigeria, Somalia, Malawi, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Haiti, Tanzania, Niger, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Sudan, and Pakistan. Currently, these countries have not yet established desalination to meet their freshwater demand. However, the current global trend shows that membrane-based desalination technology is finding new outlets for supplying water to meet growing water demand in most of the water-scarce countries. These 14 water-scarce countries will demand an additional desalination capacity of 54 Mm³/day by 2050 in order to meet the standard of current municipal water demand and to compensate for the withdrawal of renewable resources. Case studies from India, China, and South Africa have highlighted that other countries may apply the strategy of using desalinated water for industrial users. Moreover, challenges to the widespread adoption of desalination exist such as expense, significant energy use, the need for specialized staff training, the large carbon footprint of facilities, environmental issues such as greenhouse gas emission (GHGs), chemical discharge, and operational problems such as membrane fouling.