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Wind‐Powered Desalination: An Estimate of Saline Groundwater in the United States 1
Author(s) -
Androwski James,
Springer Abraham,
Acker Thomas,
Ma Mark
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
jawra journal of the american water resources association
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.957
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1752-1688
pISSN - 1093-474X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1752-1688.2010.00493.x
Subject(s) - desalination , groundwater , aquifer , environmental science , saline water , water resources , water resource management , renewable energy , resource (disambiguation) , hydrology (agriculture) , geology , engineering , salinity , oceanography , computer science , ecology , computer network , genetics , electrical engineering , biology , geotechnical engineering , membrane
James Androwski, Abraham Springer, Thomas Acker, and Mark Manone, 2011. Wind‐Powered Desalination: An Estimate of Saline Groundwater in the United States. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 47(1):93‐102. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752‐1688.2010.00493.x Abstract: Increasing scarcity of freshwater resources in many regions of the world is leading water resource managers to consider desalination as a potential alternative to traditional freshwater supplies. Desalination technologies are energy intensive and expensive to implement making desalination using renewable energy resources a potentially attractive option. Unfortunately, saline groundwater resources are not well characterized for many regions hindering consideration of such technologies. In this assessment, we estimate the saline groundwater resources of the principal aquifers of the United States using a geographic information system and correlate these resources to wind resources potentially sufficient to supply the energy demand of desalination equipment. We estimate that 3.1 × 10 14 m 3 saline groundwater, total volume, are contained in 28 of the country’s principal aquifers known to contain saline groundwater. Of this volume, 1.4 × 10 14 m 3 saline groundwater are co‐located with wind resources sufficient for electrical generation to desalinate groundwater.