Energy efficiency and sustainability of desalination
Name
WANG SI Energy Efficiency and Sustainability of Desalination NRCT 2026.pdf
Description
Accepted version
Size
887.83 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
04d80e2a073371d549b422cba2bc265f
Name
WANG SI Energy Efficiency and Sustainability of Desalination NRCT 2026.pdf
Description
Supplementary information
Size
887.83 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
04d80e2a073371d549b422cba2bc265f
Author(s)
Wang, Ruoyu
Chen, Yuanmiaoliang
Griffin, Aron M
Deshmukh, Akshay
del Cerro, Martina
Liu, Weifan
Lienhard, John H
Lin, Shihong
Elimelech, Menachem
Date Issued
October 9, 2026
Journal
Nature Reviews Clean Technology
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Citation
Wang, R., Chen, Y., Griffin, A.M. et al. Energy efficiency and sustainability of desalination. Nat. Rev. Clean Technol. (2026).
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Desalination is essential to address global water scarcity, and advances in membrane materials, high-pressure pumping equipment, energy-recovery devices and system design have reduced energy use in membrane-based desalination. However, its expansion is often still constrained by its energy consumption and environmental impacts. In this Review, we examine desalination across brackish water, seawater and hypersaline brine applications using a consistent thermodynamic benchmarking approach. Modern seawater reverse osmosis plants operate near the practical minimum energy requirement. Future energy reductions will depend primarily on redistributing and minimizing energy losses across system components, rather than reducing resistance to mass transport through the membrane. Process configuration and high-water-recovery operation dominate performance in brackish water desalination. For hypersaline brines, hybrid membrane–thermal systems and high-pressure operation are necessary to achieve minimal or zero liquid discharge while lowering overall energy consumption. Sustainability outcomes are shaped by system-level design across the treatment train, including intake impacts, membrane lifetime, brine management strategies and the carbon intensity of electricity supply. Material innovation is essential for reducing pretreatment, cleaning and post-treatment requirements, as well as for enabling higher water recovery and pressure-driven membrane-based brine concentration at salinities beyond the operating range of conventional seawater reverse osmosis.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1038/s44359-026-00221-x
