Future green seawater desalination technologies

The difficulty of securing freshwater sources is increasing with global climate change. On the other hand, seawater is less affected by climate change and regarded as a stable water source. For utilizing seawater as freshwater, seawater desalination technologies should be employed to reduce the concentration of salts. However, current desalination technologies might accelerate climate change and create problems for the ecosystem. The desalination technologies consume higher energy than conventional water treatment technologies, increase carbon footprint with high electricity use, and discharge high salinity of concentrate to the ocean. Thus, it is critical to developing green desalination technologies for sustainable desalination in the era of climate change. The energy consumption of desalination can be lowered by minimizing pump irreversibility, reducing feed salinity, and harvesting osmotic energy. Also, the carbon footprint can be reduced by employing renewable energy sources to the desalination system. Furthermore, the volume of concentrate discharge can be minimized by recovering valuable minerals from high-salinity concentrate. The future green seawater desalination can be achieved by the advancement of desalination technologies, the employment of renewable energy, and the utilization of concentrate.

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