Comparative Analysis of Desalination Technologies: Energy Performance and Renewable Energy Integration with Focus on Reverse Osmosis Systems

Faced with the scarcity of freshwater resources, desalination represents a strategic solution to meet the growing water needs. This article presents a comparative analysis of the main desalination technologies: membrane processes (reverse osmosis, electrodialysis) and thermal processes (multi-stage flash distillation MSF, multi-effect distillation MED). Reverse osmosis dominates with 69% of the global capacity, thanks to its low energy consumption (3-6 kWh/m³) and its competitive cost ($0.45-1.72/m³) compared to thermal processes (up to 25.5 kWh/m³). The study examines the couplings with renewable energies: photovoltaic systems (2.5 kWhel/m³, <2 $/m³), wind (2.8 kWh/m³), and solar thermal with organic Rankine cycles (2.35 kWhmec/m³, 0.6 $/m³). The results show that reverse osmosis coupled with renewable energies offers promising performance for sustainable desalination.