Thermocline-Driven Desalination: Feasibility Study for Cape Verde, Government of Cape Verde

ANTARES was under contract to the Republic of Cape Verde to conduct a detailed feasibility study of a novel, renewable energy-augmented desalination technology. Cape Verde is a nation of nine inhabited islands off the northeast coast of Africa. Similar to the Sahel region, it is afflicted by the ongoing African drought. Cape Verde currently desalinates seawater using technologies which rely on fuel oil for energy input. The Thermocline-Driven Desalination (TDD) system is based on using the temperature difference between the surface and subsurface waters of the deep ocean and a unique multistage flash evaporator system with non-condensible gas extraction.

ANTARES initial prefeasibility study supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) indicated that the TDD system could provide a more cost-effective supply of potable water as well as reduce national oil imports required by the current mechanical vapor compression desalination systems. The feasibility study was built on the prefeasibility study and detailed the system for a site near the national capital of Praia on the island of Santiago. The TDD system has the additional benefit of providing some spin-off industrial and commercial activity from the deep-ocean cold water that is pumped as part of the process. This water can be used to provide space conditioning, a cold water source for cold-root agriculture, and nutrient-rich, pathogen-free sea water for land-based mariculture.