Review and selection methodology for water treatment systems in mobile encampments for military applications

Securing a steady supply of water and energy is vital for the success of mobile operations in emergency and military situations. A mobile energy and water supply systems (EWSS) seeks to guarantee these resources through the use of renewable energy, hydrogen energy storage, and built-in water purification systems. The design of these water treatment systems involves a series of interesting challenges regarding the selection of treatment technologies and their interactions with the energy system. This work seeks to review the available water treatment technologies and evaluate their application in mobile water treatment systems as well as suitability for the production of ultrapure water to generate hydrogen via electrolysis. Each technology is evaluated using a technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) to provide a guide for the selection of water treatment technologies for mobile water treatment systems in an EWSS. Based on their TOPSIS scores, GAC filtration, membrane distillation, UV treatment, ultrafiltration, and microfiltration stood out as key technologies for a mobile water treatment system.