Water Requirement, Treatment, and Conservation Options for Energy Production

Water resources for energy production are becoming a growing concern for future economic development. Hence, all available options for water resources, treatment, and conservation need to be scrutinized for the production of electricity and renewable transportation fuels such as cellulosic ethanol and biodiesel.

In conventional combustion-based power plants, the cooling water requirement constitutes a major percentage of the total water requirement. An estimate for cooling water consumption for each of different cooling water systems and wastewater treatment methods for wet Flue Gas Desulphurization (wet FGD) will be presented.

Water consumption required for the growth of various feedstocks and production of biofuels including biodiesel and cellulosic ethanol will also be presented. A survey of biodiesel plants using dry/non-water washing process for saving water was conducted in order to indicate the current level of caution exercised by the biodiesel industry. Process water consumption from the perspective of different pretreatment processes used was investigated for cellulosic ethanol production. This study presents an overall picture of water consumption and conservation options for energy production from coal-fired power plants, cellulosic ethanol plants, and biodiesel plants.