A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE COSTS OF RAISING AND DESALINATING WELL WATER IN EGYPT USING DIFFERENT ENERGY FORMS

Abstract

ABSTRACT Groundwater plays an important role in providing Egypt with a portion of its water needs, as it comes third after the Nile River water and reused agricultural wastewater. The present study aimed to calculate the cost of raising a cubic meter of well water according to different desalination, and energy systems (solar electrical diesel), as well as calculating the cost of desalination of a cubic meters of well water. To achieve these objectives of the current study, several economic indicators were used, the most important of which were: the total cost per hour of operation, and the cost of lifting per cubic meter of well water subject to study. The study also estimated the cost of desalination of well water needed for human and animal use. The most important results of the study could be summarized as follow: the least costs of pumps were those of the solar energy pumps, where the cost of lifting amounted to about 0.35 pounds / hour, followed by electric pumps, where the cost of lifting amounted to about 0.80 pounds / hour, and by diesel pumps, where the cost of lifting amounted to 2.15 pounds / hour, assuming the existence of support. It was also clear that the processing units that operate with a production capacity of 20 thousand cubic meters per day are more efficient than the processing units that operate with a production capacity of 10 thousand cubic meters per day .Where the desalination cost a treated per unit of 20 thousand cobic meters perday was 0.76 L.E.L\m,while for processing units that have a production capacity of 10,000 cubic meters per day, the cost of desalination is about 1.27 pounds / cubic meters.