Technoeconomic feasibility of decentralized
desalination in the Navajo Nation
Name
brei-mbrei-mse-meche-2023-thesis.pdf.pdf
Description
Thesis PDF
Size
15.85 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
2c7aa9fb100e0967ea6a140e0f2dff82
Author(s)
Brei, Melissa
Advisor(s)
Winter IV, Amos G.
Date Issued
September 2023
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
The Navajo Nation, located in the southwest United States, faces a significant water
stress issue, with approximately 30% of households lacking access to piped water. For
many, connection to a piped network is infeasible and decentralized solutions, like desalination,
have encountered barriers to adoption. This study evaluates the Navajo
Nation’s geography, environment, and infrastructure to justify decentralized desalination.
A diverse group of stakeholders were interviewed to gain comprehensive insights
into the underlying challenges and possible value-added solutions. Analyzing these
interviews revealed a cultural aversion to wastewater, a strong sensitivity to operating
costs, and two potential system sizes: home and community. With financial sustainability
being an important requirement for several stakeholders, a first-order economic
analysis of both system sizes was conducted. Home systems present strong potential
for economic viability but community systems struggle to compete in this region
due to low population density. Using the elucidated design requirements for home
systems, electrodialysis (ED) and reverse osmosis (RO) were evaluated for technical
feasibility. While RO systems, unlike ED, are commercially available at this scale,
RO wastes 50-80% of the feedwater while ED wastes < 30%. Both technologies have
strong technical feasibility for this region and both will be field tested to understand
long-term maintenance requirements and user perception of wastewater.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
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