Water scarcity poses significant challenges in arid regions like the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) due to constant population growth, considering the effects of climate change and water management aspects. The desalination technologies face problems like high energy consumption, high investment costs, and significant environmental impacts by brine discharge. This paper researches the relationships among water scarcity, energy-intensive desalination, and the development of renewable energy in MENA, with a particular focus on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. It examines innovations in solar-powered desalination, considering both solar photovoltaic (PV) and solar thermal technologies, in combination with traditional thermal desalination methods such as multi-effect distillation (MED) and multi-stage flash (MSF). The environmental impacts associated with desalination by brine discharge are also discussed, analyzing innovative technological solutions and avoidance strategies. Utilizing bibliometrics, this report provides a comprehensive analysis of scientific literature for the assessment of the research landscape in order to recognize trends in desalination technologies in the MENA region, providing valuable insights into emerging technologies and research priorities. Despite challenges such as high initial investment costs, technical complexities, and limited funding for research and development, the convergence of water scarcity and renewable energy presents significant opportunities for integrated desalination systems in GCC countries. Summarizing, this paper emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary approaches and international collaboration by addressing the complex challenges of water scarcity and energy sustainability in the MENA region. By leveraging renewable energy sources and advancing desalination technologies, the region can achieve water security while mitigating environmental impacts and promoting economic development.

Slaughterhouses produce a large amount of wastewater, therefore, with respect to the increasing water scarcity, slaughterhouse wastewater (SWW) recycling seems to be a desirable goal. The emerging challenges and opportunities for recycling and reuse have been examined here. The selection of a suitable process for SWW recycling is dependent on the characteristics of the wastewater, the available technology, and the legal requirements. SWW recycling is not operated at a large scale up to date, due to local legal sanitary requirements as well as challenges in technical implementation. Since SWW recycling with single-stage technologies is unlikely, combined processes are examined and evaluated within the scope of this publication. The process combination of dissolved air flotation (DAF) followed by membrane bioreactor (MBR) and, finally, reverse osmosis (RO) as a polishing step seems to be particularly promising. In this way, wastewater treatment for process water reuse could be achieved in theory, as well as in comparable laboratory experiments. Furthermore, it was calculated via the methane production potential that the entire energy demand of wastewater treatment could be covered if the organic fraction of the wastewater was used for biogas production.

Securing energy supply and diversifying the energy sources is one of the main goals of energy strategy for most countries. Due to climate change, wind energy is becoming increasingly important as a method of CO₂-free energy generation. In this paper, a wind farm with five turbines located in Jerash, a city in northern Jordan, has been designed and analyzed. Optimization of wind farms is an important factor in the design stage to minimize the cost of wind energy to become more competitive and economically attractive. The analyses have been carried out using the WindFarm software to examine the significance of wind turbines’ layouts (M, straight and arch shapes) and spacing on the final energy yield. In this research, arranging the turbines facing the main wind direction with five times rotor diameter distance between each turbine has been simulated, and has resulted in 22.75, 22.87 and 21.997 GWh/year for the M shape, Straight line and Arch shape, respectively. Whereas, reducing the distance between turbines to 2.5 times of the rotor diameter (D) resulted in a reduction of the wind farm energy yield to 22.68, 21.498 and 21.5463 GWh/year for the M shape, Straight line and Arch shape, respectively. The energetic efficiency gain for the optimized wind turbines compared to the modeled layouts regarding the distances between the wind turbines. The energetic efficiency gain has been in the range between 8.9% for 5D (rotor diameter) straight layout to 15.9% for 2.5D straight layout.

The thermal desalination systems like multi-effect distillation and multi-stage flush have gone through a strong development process to increase energy efficiency and to improve energy recovery. While these improvements have led to lowered energy consumption, different concepts could be necessary to adapt the thermal desalination systems to renewable energy sources. A specially designed low-temperature desalination driven by low-grade waste heat can be used to desalinate seawater and to clean polluted water with a higher conversion ratio than existing systems. The reason for this improvement is a drastically improved heat transfer of this system, using spray systems for evaporation, and condensation. It was tested in a demonstration plant in El Gouna, Egypt, in cogeneration with diesel generators which used 7 MW_th to desalinate 500 m³/d. This paper introduces a model of the low-temperature desalination process, which is derived from experimental data and technical specifications. It required the development of energy, mass, and material balances of the media streams with respect to the measured data from the demonstration plant. The model is implemented using the energy process simulation software “Ebsilon Professional” and combined with a 10-MW_th concentrating solar power (CSP) plant. The results show the cogeneration of 2.2 MW_el power in the CSP plant and 520 m³/d fresh water in the desalination. Furthermore, the output depends on various process parameters like cogeneration fraction, temperature levels, and input salinity, which are analyzed and discussed.

The paper discusses a supply and demand scenario using renewable energy sources for the city El Gouna in Egypt as an example for a self-supplying community. All calculations are based on measured meteorological data and real power demand during the year 2013. The modeled energy system consists of a concentrating solar tower plant with thermal storage and low-temperature seawater desalination unit as well as an integrated photovoltaic plant and a wind turbine. The low-temperature desalination unit has been newly developed in order to enable the utilization of waste heat from power conversion processes by improved thermal efficiency. In the study, special attention is given to the surplus power handling generated by the photovoltaic and wind power plant. Surplus power is converted into heat and stored in the thermal storage system of the solar power plant in order to increase the capacity factor. A brief estimation of investment costs have been conducted as well in order to outline the economic performance of the modeled energy and water supply system.

Water scarcity presents one of the greatest challenges of our time. Especially in naturally water-scarce regions, the need for additional water resources is rising, requiring innovative and site-adapted technologies. The decision for a specific technology is mostly associated with high investment costs and a long life cycle time, which requires a conscientious and transparent decision-making process. In this review, such a framework is developed for selected non-conventional water technologies and strategically evaluated with the goal to support a sustainable technology application based on specific boundary conditions. This is achieved by a matrix-based assessment and the development of key indicators respecting the availability, applicability, environmental impact, scalability, and economic viability of the selected technologies. Based on a wide literature review, the developed methodology involves a systematic comparison of technologies for desalination, water reuse, groundwater utilization, agricultural reuse, and unconventional approaches like cloud seeding, dew water, and fog water harvesting. The developed indicators cover most parameters of the respective categories based on the individual designs. Subsequently, the different technologies are analyzed by a matrix-based evaluation, highlighting various strengths and weaknesses and providing insights into technology application based on regional conditions. The discussion interprets the findings, deriving implications for dry environments, acknowledging limitations, and suggesting pathways for future research. The matrix-based evaluation is illustrated by an example from the Jordan Valley for a brackish water desalination plant. Through this analytical framework, this study contributes to the discourse on sustainable water solutions and a transparent decision-making process, as well as offers valuable insights for policymakers, researchers, and industries during a decision-making progress.