System-scale design and analysis of desalination systems for meeting water needs of data centers

Buildout of data centers for high-performance computing and AI has intensified energy demands, which commensurately increases freshwater requirements for thermal management. This study presents technical and techno-economic analyses of desalination systems to produce freshwater (Total dissolved solids <500 ppm) for data centers. Two-stage reverse osmosis (RO), Mechanical Vapor Compression (MVC), and hybrid configurations are evaluated for treatment of brackish (5000 ppm), seawater (35,000 ppm), and produced water (≥50,000 ppm) feeds. Brine management is via conventional disposal or minimum to zero liquid discharge (MLD, ZLD). Freshwater recovery (FR), energy consumption (Winp), and water cost (WC) are quantified for various technologies. Results show that transitioning from conventional disposal to MLD and ZLD increased FR by 4-220% across feed salinities, while Winp and WC rise >12% and >15%, respectively. Results show FR = 736 L/1000 kg-feed, Winp = 9.4 kWh/m³-permeate and WC = 3.2 $/m³-permeate for seawater hybrid RO-MVC-based treatment with MLD disposal. For MVC-based treatment (with MLD) of 50,000 ppm PW, we obtain FR = 753 L/1000 kg-feed, Winp = 36 kWh/m³-permeate and WC = 10.4 $/m³-permeate. A novel performance metric, Saline Water Utilization Intensity (SWUI) is introduced, which quantifies data center desalination impact on local water stress. Across representative conditions, SWUI increased from 2023-2030, spanning mild to substantial stress impacts. Higher recovery through MLD reduces SWUI by 40% in water-stressed settings, enabling effective water-resource utilization despite energy and cost tradeoffs. Overall, this study establishes a detailed modeling framework for sustainability-driven assessment of desalination-integrated data center infrastructure.