Geothermal desalination in Singapore

摘要

Singapore is a geothermal hotspot, and has at least two hot springs. The nation is working to improve the diversity of its sources of water, and to reduce energy consumption. Putting these ideas together, this article investigates the possibility of using geothermal energy to desalinate seawater, following the example of pilot projects in Greece. It examines and costs two case studies. The first is based on the Sembawang hot spring 'as-is', without any additional drilling and with desalination applying an adsorption/desorption cycle. That 'as-is' option is unattractive because of the small volume of desalinated water that can be produced. An alternative is based on the same spring but with further development in drilling to reach more water at a higher temperature, and that might be attractive, depending on the flow rate and temperature.