Towards Sustainability in Water-energy Nexus: Ocean Energy for Seawater Desalination

Abstract

Seawater desalination is an important option for addressing the world's water supply challenges. Current desalination plants use enormous quantities of energy and cause a number of environmental issues. Renewable energy options, mostly solar and geothermal systems, have been examined in detail to supply the energy needed for water desalination. The co-location benefit of energy derived from the ocean to power seawater desalination processes is appealing. However, the promise and potential of ocean-based power generation for desalination systems has not been investigated in detail. The development of such systems has been limited due to technological and economic limitations of energy harvesting and transport as well as device maintenance under water. In this paper, we review the state of the art of ocean energy in desalination. It explores different sources of energy from the ocean that include electricity generation, as well as mechanical force and thermal energy and salinity gradients that can also be directly harnessed for powering the desalination processes. We also examine recent advances in scaling up for commercial deployment, and discuss relevant cost, environmental and social concerns. The great potential of ocean energy for seawater desalination in terms of diverse energy forms, flexible integration methods and various deployment strategies can provide important environmental, water and social benefits for seawater desalination, thus promote sustainability in water-energy nexus. The use of ocean energy in desalination applications could benefit the future development of ocean energy technology in renewable energy sector.