The use of saline water resources in agriculture is becoming a common practice in semi-arid and arid regions such as the Mediterranean. In the SmaCuMed project, the desalination of brackish groundwater (TDS = 2.8 g/L) for the irrigation of Argan trees in Essaouira, Morocco, to 2 g/L and 1 g/L (33% and 66% salt removal, respectively) using low-pressure reverse osmosis (LPRO) (p < 6 bar) and membrane capacitive deionization (MCDI) was tested at pilot scale. MCDI showed 40–70% lower specific energy consumption (SEC) and 10–20% higher water recovery; however, the throughput of LPRO (2.9 m³/h) was up to 1.5 times higher than that of MCDI. In addition, both technologies were successfully powered by PV solar energy with total water costs ranging from EUR 0.82 to EUR 1.34 per m³. In addition, the water quality in terms of sodium adsorption ratio was slightly higher with LPRO resulting in higher concentrations of Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺, due to blending with feed water. In order to evaluate both technologies, additional criteria such as investment and specific water costs, operability and brine disposal have to be considered.

Understanding the response of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) cultivars to salt stress is essential for the sustainable management of phoeniculture in Tafilalet, Morocco. It offers a promising avenue for addressing the challenges presented by the increasing salinity of irrigation waters, especially because farmers in these regions often lack the necessary knowledge and resources to make informed decisions regarding cultivar selection. This study addresses this issue by investigating the performance of the most relied on cultivars by farmers in Tafilalet, namely Mejhoul, Boufeggous, Nejda, and Bouskri. These cultivars were exposed to a sodium chloride treatment of 154 mM, and their performances were evaluated over a three-month period. We examined the growth rate, photosynthesis-related parameters, pigments, water status in plants, and biochemical compounds associated with oxidative stress, osmotic stress, and ionic stress. Principle component analysis (PCA) effectively categorized the cultivars into two distinct groups: salt-sensitive (Mejhoul and Nejda) and salt-tolerant (Boufeggous and Bouskri). These findings provide valuable insights for farmers, highlighting the advantages of cultivating Boufeggous and Bouskri cultivars due to their superior adaptation to salt conditions. These cultivars exhibited moderate decrease in shoot growth (25%), enhanced catalase activity, a smaller increase in anthocyanin content, and greater enhancement in organic osmolytes compared with salt-sensitive cultivars like Mejhoul (experiencing an 87% reduction in shoot elongation) and Nejda (exhibiting the highest reduction in leaf area). Furthermore, the Na⁺/K⁺ ratio was positively influenced by salt stress, with Mejhoul and Nejda recording the highest values, suggesting its potential as an indicator of salt stress sensitivity in date palms.

The main purpose of this study was to assess and rank suitable shallow aquifers for the implementation of a solar-PV desalination system (SmaIrriCube) in small-scale farms in arid and semi-arid Mediterranean regions, such as Tunisia. A GIS-based Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA-GIS) model was developed. A SMART method was applied to evaluate the relative importance of the criteria and the Weighted Sum Model was used to generate the suitability map, in line with technology efficiency (SmaIrriCube_Eff) and farmer acceptability (SmaIrriCube_Acc). The overall results showed that 188 out of the 204 Tunisian shallow aquifers are potentially viable for implementing the SmaIrriCube system. For SmaIrriCube_Eff, the central and southern aquifers were found to be the most suitable, with a Suitability index (Si) exceeding 0.5, mostly due to the high solar irradiation and evaporation rate. In terms of acceptability, the southern aquifers are the most preferable, with a Si higher than 0.56, due to high solar irradiation, evaporation rate and groundwater quantity and quality. The results also indicated that the removal of evaporation and solar photovoltaic modules significantly affected the aquifer ranking, with the southern and central aquifers being the most sensitive to these criteria. The GIS-MCDA approach was proven to be a practical, upgradable and time/cost-efficient solution for decision-making, which can be extended to other technologies and/or regions with similar climatic characteristics.

The low-fouling propensity of commercially available polyethersulfone (PES) membranes was studied after modification of the membrane surface via coating with polymerizable bicontinuous microemulsion (PBM) materials. The PBM coating was polymerized within 1 min using ultraviolet (UV) light exposure. It was detected on the PES membrane surface via attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy. The PBM coating led to an average 10% increase in the hydrophilicity of the PES membrane surface and an increase in total organic content (TOC) removal by more than 15%. Flux-step tests were conducted with model foulant comprising 100 mg L⁻¹ humic acid (HA) solution to detect the onset of critical fouling, characterized by a rapid and substantial increase in TMP, and to compare the fouling propensity of commercially available PES membranes with PBM-coated membranes. The critical flux was found to be about 40% higher for PBM spray-coated membrane and 20% lower for PBM casting-coated membrane than the commercial PES membrane. This demonstrates the performance advantages of the thin PBM layer spray-coated on PES membrane compared to the thick casting-coated PBM layer. The study showcases the potential of PBM spray-coated membranes over commercial PES membranes for use in membrane bioreactors (MBR) for wastewater treatment systems with reduced maintenance over longer operation periods.

Ensuring the sustainability of a product or a system requires a thorough evaluation of its environmental and socioeconomic impacts. In this context, one of the objectives of the EU-PRIMA SmaCuMed project is to evaluate the socioeconomic and environmental impacts of the Smart Cube system. The Smart Cube was developed for the PV-powered desalination of brackish groundwater with membrane capacitive deionization (MCDI) and low-pressure reverse osmosis (LPRO); it additionally uses smart sensors for controlled irrigation in remote agricultural areas in Morocco, as an example for the North African region. Based on the Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment approach, this paper aims to assess the environmental and economic impacts of the Smart Cube, using Life Cycle Costing (LCC) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) analyses for environmental evaluation. Various scenarios have been defined for both environmental and economic assessments. Based on 1 m³ of produced desalinated water, the LCC results showed that, when using the desalination technologies directly connected to the grid, the prices are lower than those obtained when it was supplied by the PV system. This is only due to the very low energy prices from the Moroccan grid (EUR 0.10/kWh). The LCC results showed that LPRO is a more cost-effective option for producing desalinated water, with a lower total cost compared to MCDI. However, LCA results indicated that LPRO has a higher environmental impact compared to MCDI. If higher water production capacity is a priority, MCDI connected to PV is the best choice, with lower carbon emission but higher overall water costs.