The shortage of fresh water resources has made the desalination of seawater a widely adopted technology. Seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) is the most commonly used method for desalination. The SWRO process is energy-intensive, and most of the energy in SWRO is spent on pressurizing the seawater to overcome the osmotic barrier for producing fresh water. The pressure needed depends on the salinity of the seawater, its temperature, and the membrane surface properties. Membrane compaction occurs in SWRO due to hydraulic pressure application for long-term operations and operating temperature fluctuations due to seasonal seawater changes. This study investigates the effects of short-term feed water temperature increase on the SWRO process in a full-scale pilot with pretreatment and a SWRO installation consisting of a pressure vessel which contains seven industrial-scale 8” diameter spiral wound membrane elements. A SWRO feed water temperature of 40 °C, even for a short period of 7 days, caused a permanent performance decline illustrated by a strong specific energy consumption increase of 7.5%. This study highlights the need for membrane manufacturer data that account for the water temperature effect on membrane performance over a broad temperature range. There is a need to develop new membranes that are more tolerant to temperature fluctuations.

Traditional lithium extraction methods are time-consuming and energy-intensive, often leaving a large environmental footprint due to significant freshwater consumption. However, direct lithium extraction (DLE) technologies offer a more efficient and sustainable alternative. DLE can reduce the production time and energy consumption of the overall system, leading to lower costs. This technology is especially promising for extracting lithium from low-concentration brine such as seawater, which contains 8000 times more lithium than land sources. With global demand for lithium expected to reach a third of commercially available land-brine reserves by 2050, DLE’s potential to tap into the vast ocean reserves is crucial. Numerous organizations and developers are working to develop and refine new DLE systems to meet the growing demand for lithium, while others are working on integrating various DLE technologies to create more advanced and efficient systems to enhance extraction efficiency, product quality, and cost-effectiveness. In this review, we assess DLE’s commercial potential, providing an overview of the technology and examining current commercially deployed systems.

This paper briefly describes the history of CSP up to the present times and also gives some views about what could be expected in the near future for the industry. It also points out the relevance of the TES system as a key and gives some ideas regarding the innovations that could be expected in the coming CSP projects. Although currently, tower technology capacity under operation is less than 15% of the total CSP capacity in the world, solar tower, with molten salt most likely, might be the predominant technology in the medium run for electricity generation. In addition, other different concepts will be more commonly projected in order to increase dispatchability or renewable energy contribution in the electric system as hybridization with other technologies like PV or as part of desalination projects.