Desalination kind

Merits

Drawbacks

Solar stills

• Environmentally-friendly.

• Low operation and maintenance (O&M) cost.

• Generated water possesses high quality.

• High construction material availability.

• Appropriate for households and communities living on islands.

• Elimination of fluoride, arsenic, bacteria, etc., from the water.

• Large area occupation.

• Low efficiency.

• Is not appropriate for high capacities of water production.

Humidification- dehumidification (HDH)

• Low installation and O&M costs.

• High flexibility.

• Appropriate for decentralized operation.

• Simpler brine pretreatment.

• Works with any energy.

• Requires availability.

• High capital investment cost.

• High overall costs of produced water.

Multi-stage flash (MSF)

• Generating high-quality distilled water.

• Reliable device operation.

• Appropriate for large-scale

distillation plants.

• Water of any quality can be treated.

• Minimum or no feedwater pretreatment is needed.

• High energy consumption rates.

• High operation temperature causes corrosion in devices.

• Heavy structure.

• High capital cost.

Multi-effect distillation (MED)

• Lower thermal energy consumption levels.

• Reliable device operation.

• Producing high-quality distilled water.

• High operation temperature is not required.

• No feedwater pretreatment is required.

• Lower CO₂ emission compared to the MSF desalination.

• Costly and heavy structure.

• Electricity consumption for vacuum pump.

Solar photovoltaic (PV)-powered reverse osmosis (RO)

• Smooth operation.

• Operation at ambient temperature.

• Flexibility in capacity expansion.

• Can be constructed as a compact or portable device.

• Low energy consumption.

• Highly suitable for the treatment of groundwater and BW.

• Membranes have a short lifetime.

• A high-pressure pump (HPP) is required.

• Possibility of biological fouling of membranes.

• Requires pretreatment of feedwater.

• Using a battery is not recommended owing to the high capital cost and the need for battery replacement.

Solar thermal- powered reverse osmosis (RO)

• Device is safe.

• Flexible operation.

• Environmentally-friendly.

• Batteries are not required.

• A low-temperature source is sufficient.

• Solar collectors could cover a wide temperature range.

• No efficiency losses.

• Low O&M cost.

• Nonskilled labor would suffice.

• Suitable for large-capacity operation.

• Consumes less energy for posttreatment.