Geothermal desalination

[1][3] Direct geothermal desalination heats seawater to boiling in an evaporator, then transferring to a condenser.

[5] If the geothermal energy is used indirectly, it can be used to generate power for the water desalination process, as well as excess electricity that can be used for consumers.

[7] However, arsenic and boron, two potentially toxic elements, have been found in the geothermal water used to generate electricity.

[7] Since the construction of the geothermal desalination plant in this region, these toxic elements have contaminated freshwater wells, rendering this water unusable for agriculture.

[3] Unlike the BNGF project, this is considered a success as it produced drinkable water without polluting the environment at a low cost using only geothermal energy.

[2] In particular, two regions that have ample geothermal resources and are experiencing water scarcity are California and Saudi Arabia.

Ultimately though, the long term environmental consequences of geothermal power desalination plants are still not clear.

[9] Geothermal energy is not dependent on day or night cycles and weather conditions, meaning it has a high-capacity factor, which is a measure of how often a plant is running at maximum power.

[8] This also means that geothermal desalination plants can operate in any weather condition at any time of day.

[2] The exact origins of geothermal desalination are unclear; however some early work is credited to Leon Awerbuch, a scientist working in Research & Development at the Bechtel Group at the time, who proposed the process of using geothermal energy for water desalination in 1972.