A Review of Clathrate Hydrate Based Desalination To Strengthen Energy–Water Nexus

Abstract

Water resource management impacts almost all aspects of the economy, in particular health, food production and security, domestic water supply and sanitation, energy, industry and environmental sustainability. For the last several decades, seawater has become an important source of fresh water as it is one of the most abundant resources on earth. Desalination is the process of removal of salts from seawater and is postulated to be a core technology in alleviating this problem. Clathrate hydrate based desalination (HyDesal) is a potential technology for seawater desalination. Salts are excluded from hydrate formation, thereby resulting in solid hydrate and concentrated brine. After separation from brine, the solid hydrate crystals upon dissociation produce pure water. In this work, a detailed review of the literature (both patents and publications) so far on HyDesal is critically evaluated, and prospects and directions to commercialize the HyDesal process are presented. Further, innovation by coupling LNG cold energy with HyDesal can make it economically attractive and can strengthen the energy–water nexus.