1% of the world's population receives drinking water from seawater desalination
ADI AutoSense platform, a condition-based monitoring technology,
Desalination systems increase power efficiency and reduce carbon emissions.


Seawater accounts for approximately 97% of the Earth's total water volume. Freshwater accounts for only about 3%. If seawater could be freely utilized as drinking water, efficient water resource management would be possible. This could lead to significant advancements in agriculture and the quality of life for people around the world.

However, seawater desalination technology requires a lot of energy, as well as significant time, money, and resources. Analog Devices' (ADI) OtoSense™ platform offers an opportunity to improve the efficiency of this technology.

OtoSense is a condition-based monitoring (CbM) technology that continuously and accurately measures and monitors the health of machinery and other critical equipment. ADI claims that it can collect equipment condition data faster and more accurately than other sensing platforms.

This data can be fed into AI software to derive useful insights, enabling the detection of machine anomalies and prevention of problems. This can maximize uptime and reduce maintenance and downtime costs. AutoSense technology is also designed to be used in a variety of applications.

◇ State-based monitoring reduces overall system energy consumption

According to an October 2019 report from the Global Water Institute, approximately 1% of the world's population relies on desalinated water for their drinking water, a figure projected to increase to 14% by 2025. As climate change causes more countries to experience extreme droughts, demand for desalination technology will only increase.

Seawater desalination technology must meet requirements such as ease of implementation, reliability, and energy efficiency. CbM technology can help meet these requirements.

Currently, AutoSense technology is being used in post-production desalination pump testing to ensure the integrity and reliability of seawater desalination systems. Using AutoSense, this energy-intensive test can be performed 23% faster, significantly reducing energy consumption. ADI predicts that this speed could be increased by up to 50% in the future.

◇ Improving energy efficiency can reduce carbon emissions by up to 15%.

Providing fresh drinking water using less energy is just one example of how CbM technology can reduce electricity consumption.

Fifty percent of global energy consumption is used to power electric motors of all types. Applying CbM technology to sectors like energy, manufacturing, agriculture, and transportation to operate equipment at peak efficiency could reduce global carbon emissions by up to 15%.

Increased productivity, improved quality, reduced maintenance, and reduced energy consumption all lead to cost savings. Asset health monitoring has made business models that were previously cost-infeasible feasible.

CbM technology can contribute to slowing and even reversing global climate change. ADI stated, "We are collaborating with leading global companies to not only develop cutting-edge technologies, but also strive to improve both the quality of life and the planet."