Reverse osmosis desalination for greenhouse irrigation: Experimental characterization and economic evaluation based on energy hubs

Water scarcity is a threat to crucial economic sectors, notably agriculture, which is a major concern in arid regions like Spain's Almeria province, home to a substantial greenhouse industry. One of the possible solution for this fact is the use of alternative water sources, as desalination. This work offers a comprehensive characterization and economic evaluation of reverse osmosis desalinated water for greenhouse irrigation, exploring various scenarios, including photovoltaic electricity generation. To accomplish this, an economic model based on the energy hub methodology is proposed. This model provides a versatile framework that accounts for factors like variable electricity generation and water demand, allowing for accurate cost assessments. The results show that levelized cost of water between 2.51 and 3.69 euro/m3 can be reached depending on the configuration of the system. Moreover, the cash flow analysis demonstrates that the investment in reverse osmosis systems for greenhouse irrigation can be recovered in less than three years in all the studied scenarios. These findings suggest that using reverse osmosis systems for greenhouse irrigation is a viable option particularly appealing to farmers and small associations in specific districts, promoting distributed desalination adoption in agriculture environments.