Performance assessment of a wind driven membrane desalination unit in Saudi Arabia

Situated in a mostly desert area,the kingdom of saudi arabia (ksa) faces the continuous challenge of satisfying water needs of its growing population and industry. currently,sea or brackish water desalination plants satisfy more than half of the water demands of the kingdom. however,even with the country being an oil producer,desalination is an energy intensive industry making the investment in this field a costly process. thermal desalination plants are also large pollutants. therefore,cheaper and cleaner alternative sources of power are required to provide lower cost desalination solutions. wind power is an attractive option to be utilised with desalination technologies. this paper investigates the potential utilization of wind energy to drive a reverse osmosis (ro) desalination unit to produce fresh water from brackish water in the saudi arabian gulf region. the analysis proved the capability of existing wind power to operate ro desalination units within acceptable performance standards. for a two stages process with an energy recovery device,60% recovery rate can be achieved and the energy consumption can be kept within 0.5∼2 kwh/m3 based on the local available wind power. an acceptable ro operation can be efficient in the presence of mild fluctuations in wind power.