Optimal design and operation of desalination systems: new challenges and recent advances

• Review of recent advances in systems engineering and optimization of desalination.
• Several new opportunities and challenges in desalination are discussed.
• Future opportunities for structure optimization of desalination systems identified.
• Identified need for hybrid and cogeneration design.

An overview of recent advancements in systematic optimization of the design and operation of water desalination is presented. A brief summary of various techniques and optimization tools that have recently been applied to desalination to optimize the design and/or operation, and some of the findings of various optimization case studies are discussed. Decoupling of equation-oriented, physics-based models from the optimization algorithm has allowed for simulation and optimization of rather complex concepts. These concepts include time-variable operation and superstructure optimization via MINLP. Novel hybrid desalination configurations based on MED, multi stage flash (MSF), and thermal vapor compression (TVC) have been developed. There are new challenges and opportunities for advancement of desalination technologies, including the need for treatment of frack water as well as microgrid/off-grid and renewable energy based desalination.