Qatar desalination research: An overview

Abstract

As freshwater scarcity has intensified in Qatar, seawater desalination has been established as a strategic and prominent industry. This study thoroughly analyzes the current status of seawater desalination research and development in Qatar and assessed the trend of seawater-based desalination industry in Qatar. The characteristics of Arabian Gulf, history of seawater desalination in Qatar, Qatar National Vision 2030, policies, and regulations governing seawater desalination in Qatar are presented first. Then, the present desalination facilities, their corresponding desalination technologies, and the current challenges faced by desalination facilities in Qatar have been reviewed. Different desalination studies in Qatar-based Institutions such as Qatar University (QU), Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), and Texas A&M University Qatar (TAMUQ) were examined. Various studies on membrane-based (reverse osmosis, forward osmosis, electrodialysis, and membrane distillation), thermal-based (multi-stage flash distillation and multiple effect distillation), membrane-thermal hybrid technologies, and renewable-based technologies were analyzed carefully in this paper. Different proposals for existing problems in desalination process and some suggested measures regarding the current status of seawater desalination have been highlighted. Recent trend of integrating renewable energy with the desalination techniques, and the environmental impact assessment of desalination plants were also discussed. This review presented a comprehensive database for Qatar-based seawater desalination research and serves as a complete and important analysis for distinctive status of desalination in Qatar where clean water is scarce.