Comparative techno-economic assessment of osmotically-assisted reverse osmosis and batch-operated vacuum-air-gap membrane distillation for high-salinity water desalination

New developments in pressure- and thermally driven membrane desalination technologies offer the potential to cost-effectively treat high-salinity waters, especially when powered by low-cost solar electricity thermal energy. This paper presents a comparative techno-economic assessment of state-of-the-art most promising for high recovery desalination, namely, osmotically-assisted reverse osmosis (OARO) batch-operated vacuum-air-gap distillation (batch V-AGMD), produce potable water while concentrating brine within range 140–290 g/L TDS minimum-liquid-discharge (MLD) zero-liquid-discharge (ZLD) applications. It is shown that both OARO batch V-AGMD can feedwater brines with 30–125 corresponding fresh rates 85–25%. When low cost energy are used, resulting levelized (LCOW) from 0.70–6.28 $/m3, batch-V-AGMD 1.74–2.77 $/m3. more cost-effective than salinity below 70 75%, whereas at higher levels. The sensitivity this comparison on prices module costs discussed.