Browsing by Author "Quinn, Jason C., committee member"

Now showing 1 - 9 of 9

Open Access
A techno-economic study on the waste heat recovery options for wet cooled natural gas combined cycle power plants
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2018) Paudel, Achyut, author; Bandhauer, Todd M., advisor; Quinn, Jason C., committee member; Reardon, Kenneth F., committee member
Increasing ambient temperature is known to have negative impacts on the performance of gas turbine and combined cycle power plants. There have been multiple approaches to mitigate this performance reduction. One such method involves cooling of the gas turbine inlet air. There are several different commercial techniques available, but they are energy intensive and require large capital investments. One potential option for cost reduction is to recover the waste heat emanating from the power plants to operate thermally activated cooling systems to cool the turbine inlet air. In this study, a 565 MW natural gas combined cycle power plant subjected to different waste heat recovery scenarios and gas turbine inlet chilling is assessed. A simplified thermodynamic and heat transfer model is developed to predict the performance of an evaporatively cooled NGCC power plant at varying ambient conditions. By taking typical meteorological year (TMY3) hourly weather data for two different locations – Los Angeles, California and Houston, Texas – the yearly output for this plant is predicted at a 100% capacity factor. The feasibilities of different waste heat recovery (WHR) systems including a gas turbine exhaust driven absorption chiller, a flue gas driven absorption chiller, a steam driven absorption chiller, and an electrically driven vapor compression chiller are assessed by calculating the Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) for each scenario. In each of these cases, a parametric analysis was performed on the COP and the costs ($ per kWth) of the system. In these cases, the COP was varied from 0.2 to 2.0 (increments of 0.2), whereas the costs were varied logarithmically from $10 to $10,000 per kWth. The results of the analysis showed that for a fixed WHR system cost (i.e., $ per kWth), the system powered by flue gas generated the lowest LCOE, followed by the electrically-driven vapor compression chiller, steam-heated chiller, and finally, the gas turbine exhaust driven chiller for both geographic locations at all COP combinations. The analysis also investigated the impact of fixed investment cost, and the flue gas system again yielded the smallest LCOE and yielded a lower LCOE than the baseline case (no WHR) over a wide range of COPs. The maximum costs each of these systems could tolerate before the LCOE is higher than the baseline case was also determined. The flue gas driven absorption system had the highest tolerable costs at all COP combinations, followed by the vapor compression, steam, and gas turbine exhaust driven systems. As such, the flue gas powered system was identified as the most economic system to reduce the LCOE from the baseline case for a wide range of COP combinations at high tolerable costs for these two locations.
Open Access
Analysis and control co-design optimization of natural gas power plants with carbon capture and thermal energy storage
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Vercellino, Roberto, author; Herber, Daniel R., advisor; Bandhauer, Todd M., advisor; Quinn, Jason C., committee member; Coburn, Timothy C., committee member
In this work, an optimization model was constructed to help address important design and operation questions for a novel system combining natural gas power plants (NGCC) with carbon capture (CC) and hot and cold thermal energy storage (TES) units. The conceptualization of this system is motivated by the expected evolution of the electricity markets towards a carbon-neutral electricity grid heavily penetrated by renewable energy sources, resulting in highly variable electricity prices and demand. In this context, there will be an opportunity for clean, flexible, and cheap fossil fuel-based generators, such as NGCC plants with CC, to complement renewable generation. However, while recent work has demonstrated that high CO2 rates are achievable, challenges due to high capital costs, flexibility limitations, and the parasitic load imposed by CC systems onto NGCC power plants have so far prevented its commercialization. Coupling TES units with CC and NGCC would allow to store thermal energy into the TES units when the electricity prices are low, either by subtracting it from the NGCC or by extracting it from the grid, and to discharge thermal power at peak prices, from the hot storage (HS) to offset the parasitic load of the CC system and from the cold storage (CS) for chilling the inlet of the NGCC combustion turbine and increase the output of the cycle beyond nominal value. For the early-stage engineering studies investigating the feasibility of this novel system, a control co-design (CCD) approach is taken where key plant sizing decisions (including storage capacities and energy transfer rates) and operational control (e.g., when to store and use thermal energy and operate the power plant) are considered in an integrated manner using a simultaneous CCD strategy. The optimal design, as well as the operation of the system, are determined for an entire year (either all-at-once or through a moving prediction horizons strategy) in a large, sparse linear optimization problem. The results demonstrate both the need for optimal operation to enable a fair economic assessment of the proposed system as well as optimal sizing decisions due to sensitivity to a variety of scenarios, including different market conditions, site locations, and technology options. After detailed analysis, the technology shows remarkable promise in that it outperforms NGCC power plants with state-of-the-art CC systems in many of the scenarios evaluated. The best overall TES technology solution relies on cheap excess grid electricity from renewable sources to charge the TES units -- the HS via resistive heating and the CS through an ammonia-based vapor compression cycle. Future enhancements to the optimization model are also discussed, which include additional degrees of freedom to the CC system, adapting the model to evaluate other energy sources and storage technologies, and considering uncertainty in the market signals directly in the optimization model.
Open Access
Economic impact of thermal energy storage on natural gas power with carbon capture in future electricity markets
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Markey, Ethan James, author; Bandhauer, Todd M., advisor; Quinn, Jason C., committee member; Herber, Daniel R., committee member
As policies evolve to reflect climate change goals, the use of fossil fuel power plants in expected to change. Specifically, these power plants will need to incorporate carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies to significantly reduce their carbon emissions, and they will be operated flexibly to accommodate the growing concentration of renewable energy generators. Unfortunately, most CCS technologies are very expensive, and they impose a parasitic heat load on the power plant, thereby decreasing net power output and the ability to operate flexibly. This research evaluated the economic potential of using hot and cold thermal energy storages (TES) to boost the net power output and flexibility of a natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) power plant with CCS capabilities. Resistively heated hot TES was used to offset the parasitic heat load imposed on the NGCC by the CCS unit while vapor compression cooled cold TES was used to chill the inlet air to the power plant. Thermodynamic models were created for the base NGCC + CCS power plant, the hot TES equipment, and the cold TES equipment, to determine key performance and cost parameters such as net power output, fuel consumption, emissions captured, capital costs, and operational costs. These parameters were then used to simulate the operation of the power plant with and without the TES technologies in accordance with fourteen electricity pricing structures predicted for different future electricity market scenarios. The difference in net present value (NPV) between the base NGCC + CCS power plant and power plant with the TES technologies was used as the primary economic metric in this analysis. The NPV benefit from increased revenue due to TES utilization was found to outweigh the NPV penalty from the additional capital costs. This positive economic result was attributed to the low cost of the TES equipment and the ability to charge the storages using cheap electricity from high levels of renewable output. The results have shown that hot TES increased NPV in 12 of 14 market scenarios while the cold TES increased NPV in 14 of 14 market scenarios. A combination of both hot and cold TES yielded the largest increases in NPV.
Open Access
Modeling and design of a power boosted turbo-compression cooling system
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Roberts, Nickolas Richard, author; Bandhauer, Todd M., advisor; Quinn, Jason C., committee member; Cale, James, committee member
Waste heat recovery technologies have the potential to reduce fuel consumption and address increased electricity and cooling demands in shipboard applications. Existing thermally driven power and cooling technologies are simply too large to be installed on ships where space for new equipment is extremely limited. This study addresses major shipboard challenges through the modeling and design of a volume optimized turbo-compression cooling system (TCCS). The TCCS is driven by low-grade waste heat in the shipboard diesel generator set jacket water and lubrication oil and was designed to be a drop-in replacement of electric chiller systems. A case study of a marine diesel generator set and electric chiller is presented, including annual engine loading and seawater temperature profiles. Three TCCS integration options and five working fluids (R134a, R1234ze(E), R1234yf, R245fa, R515a) were evaluated over the range of case study conditions using a fixed heat exchanger effectiveness thermodynamic model. The hybrid thermally and electricity driven "power boosted" TCCS reduced electricity consumption for cooling by over 100 kWe. Plate and frame heat exchanger models were used to size and optimize the system to fit within the volume of a commercial centrifugal chiller of equal cooling capacity. The system used R134a, provided 200-tons of cooling, and had an electric coefficient of performance (COP) of 9.84 at the design conditions. Optimized heat exchanger and pipe geometries were fixed, and the model was run over the range of case study conditions to determine annual fuel savings of 92.1 mt yr-1 and a weighted average generator set power density improvement of 11.0%. Heat exchangers, turbomachinery, and piping were solid modeled to demonstrate that the system fits within the required footprint (40.6 ft2) and volume (267 ft3). The designed system was estimated to cost $295,036 in equipment and $442,554 in total installed costs. The resulting payback period was 5.77 years while operating for only 3,954 hours per year. Over a 15-year period, the net present value and internal rate of return were $176,734 and 16%, respectively.
Open Access
Modeling and simulation to investigate the electrification potential of medium- and heavy-duty vehicle fleets
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2023) Trinko, David A., author; Bradley, Thomas H., advisor; Quinn, Jason C., committee member; Simske, Steven, committee member; Hurrell, James, committee member
This project involves developing and integrating new modeling tools to simulate the dynamics of electric medium- and heavy-duty fleet vehicle adoption. A technical and economic modeling tool, combining a data-driven hardware cost model with a cost-optimal charging strategy microsimulation, enables tailored analysis of the costs and benefits of electrifying individual fleets. Next, a novel text synthesis process, applied to a curated corpus of literature, quantifies trade-offs between technical, economic, and other factors in the fleet vehicle procurement decision. The outcomes of these tasks combine with knowledge from recent literature on fleet decision processes to specify the vehicle procurement model used by fleets in an agent-based model of the medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicle market. This model embodies an especially disaggregated approach to adoption modeling, internalizing factors and dynamics that conventional adoption models externalize. In particular, explicitly modeling the formation and diffusion of opinions among agents enables experiments that conventional models cannot support. Demonstrations show, for example, that increasing the extent of interactions between populations with different proclivities to electric vehicles has an asymmetrical outcome. High-proclivity electric vehicle adoption is generally unaffected as interactions increase, but low-proclivity adoption is accelerated. By representing individual fleets' requirements and costs at a high level of detail, incorporating an adoption decision model informed by a wide body of empirical research, and broadening the array of variables and dynamics available for experimentation, this integrated model offers a new way to understand the urgent challenge of eliminating emissions from the most emissions-intensive transportation sectors.
Open Access
Predictive energy management strategies for hybrid electric vehicles applied during acceleration events
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2019) Trinko, David A., author; Bradley, Thomas H., advisor; Quinn, Jason C., committee member; Anderson, Charles W., committee member
The emergence and widespread adoption of vehicles with hybrid powertrains and onboard computing capabilities have improved the feasibility of utilizing predictions of vehicle state to enable optimal energy management strategies (EMS) to improve fuel economy. Real-world implementation of optimal EMS remains challenging in part because of limits on prediction accuracy and computation speed. However, if a finite set of EMS can be pre-derived offline, instead of onboard the vehicle in real time, fuel economy improvements may be possible using hardware that is common in current production vehicles. Acceleration events (AE) are attractive targets for this kind of EMS application due to their high energy cost, probability of recurrence, and limited variability. This research aims to understand how a finite set of EMS might be derived and applied to AEs based on predictions of basic AE attributes to achieve reliable fuel economy improvements. Models of the 2010 Toyota Prius are used to simulate fuel economy for a variety of control strategies, including baseline control, optimal EMS control derived via dynamic programming, and pre-derived control applied with approximate prediction to AEs. Statistical methods are used to identify correlations between AE attributes, optimal powertrain control, and fuel economy results. Then, key AE attributes are used to define AE categorization schemes of various resolutions, in which one pre-derived EMS is applied to every AE in a category. Last, the control strategies are simulated during a variety of drive cycles to predict real-world fuel economy results. By simulating fuel economy improvement for AEs both in isolation and in the context of drive cycles, it was concluded that applying pre-derived EMS to AEs based on predictions of initial and final velocity is likely to enable reliable fuel economy benefits in low-aggression driving.
Open Access
Simulation-based tsunami evacuation risk assessment and risk-informed mitigation
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Wang, Zhenqiang, author; Jia, Gaofeng, advisor; Ellingwood, Bruce R., committee member; Mahmoud, Hussam N., committee member; Quinn, Jason C., committee member
Earthquake-induced tsunami can be very destructive involving significant loss of life. Evacuation to safety zones is regarded as one of the most effective ways to save lives from the tsunami strike due to the limited effectiveness of structural countermeasures. However, it is extremely challenging to successfully evacuate many people under the multi-hazard environment within a condensed time frame, especially under the near-field tsunami. Proper evacuation planning is crucial to support effective evacuation and reduce casualty. For effective evacuation planning, it is important to better understand the complex evacuation behavior for recommending proper response and behavior in an emergency. Also, it is important to have a clear picture of evacuation risk for informing policy and decision-making. Furthermore, it is important to identify effective pre-event mitigation strategies for effective risk reduction. Important limitations exist in current research on the above aspects. Tsunami evacuation simulation using the agent-based model has been used to investigate the complex evacuation behavior; however, existing agent-based evacuation models usually neglect or simplify many important factors and/or mechanisms associated with the evacuation. The neglect or simplification would make the evacuation simulation less realistic and hence a good understanding of evacuation behavior challenging. For the quantification of tsunami evacuation risk, a systematic framework that can address complex evacuation models and uncertainty (including aleatory and epistemic uncertainties) models is needed; however, no such framework has been developed for the quantification of tsunami evacuation risk. Also, some important uncertainties such as that in the seismic damage to the bridge are usually neglected or the uncertainty quantification is simplified. In this case, it would be difficult to assess the evacuation risk accurately and provide a clear picture of the evacuation risk. For effective pre-event evacuation risk mitigation, the effectiveness of different mitigation strategies needs to be quantitatively evaluated to identify more effective strategies. However, the effectiveness of the mitigation strategy is usually evaluated more qualitatively than quantitatively. Furthermore, the evaluation is typically conducted without systematically considering various uncertainties, which makes the identified strategies not robust to uncertainties. In tsunami evacuation risk assessment and mitigation, risk evaluation using general stochastic simulation techniques (e.g., Monte Carlo simulation) typically entails significant computational challenges. Efficient algorithms are needed to alleviate such computational challenges and facilitate such tasks. To bridge the above knowledge gaps, this research proposes a generalized framework for simulation-based tsunami evacuation risk assessment and risk-informed mitigation. The framework is built layer by layer through integrating tsunami evacuation simulation using agent-based modeling (ABM) technique, simulation-based evacuation risk assessment, sensitivity analysis of evacuation risk, and risk-informed evaluation of mitigation strategies. An improved agent-based tsunami evacuation model is developed for more realistic tsunami evacuation simulation by incorporating many of the typically neglected or simplified but important factors and/or mechanisms in the evacuation. Using the proposed agent-based evacuation model, a simulation-based framework is proposed to quantify the evacuation risk, in which various uncertainties (including aleatory and epistemic uncertainties) associated with the evacuation are explicitly considered and modeled by proper selection of probability distribution models. Sensitivity analysis of evacuation risk with respect to the epistemic uncertainty is performed, and the sensitivity information can be used to guide effective epistemic uncertainty reduction and hence for more accurate risk assessment. Also, sensitivity analysis is performed to identify critical risk factors, and the sensitivity information can be used to guide effective evacuation modeling and selection of candidate risk mitigation strategies. Risk-informed evaluation of different types of candidate mitigation strategies (including infrastructural and non-infrastructural strategies) is conducted to identify more effective strategies that are robust to uncertainties. Efficient sample-based approaches are developed to alleviate the computational challenges in evacuation risk assessment, sensitivity analysis, and risk-informed evaluation of mitigation strategies. As an illustrative example, the proposed framework is applied to tsunami evacuation risk assessment and risk-informed mitigation for the coastal community of Seaside, Oregon.
Open Access
Technoecomonic optimization and working fluid selection for an engine coolant driven turbo-compression cooling system
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2018) Young, Derek Nicholas, author; Bandhauer, Todd M., advisor; Quinn, Jason C., committee member; Burkhardt, Jesse, committee member
The abundance of low grade waste heat presents an opportunity to recover typically unused heat energy and improve system efficiencies in a number of different applications. This work examines the technoeconomic performance of a turbo-compression cooling system designed to recover ultra-low grade (≤ 100°C) waste heat from engine coolant in large marine diesel engine-generator sets. In addition, five different working fluids (R134a, R152a, R245fa, R1234ze(E), and R600a) were studied for this application to better understand the effects of fluid properties on technical and economic system performance. A coupled thermodynamic, heat exchanger, and economic model was developed to calculate the payback period of the turbo-compression cooling system. Then, the payback period was minimized by optimizing the surface area of the heat exchangers by varying the effectiveness of the heat exchangers. The sensitivity of the payback period to the heat exchanger effectiveness values was quantified to inform future design considerations. The turbo-compression cooling system with R152a had the lowest payback period of 1.67 years and an initial investment of $181,846. The R1234ze(E) system had the highest cooling capacity of 837 kW and the highest overall COP of 0.415. The R152a system provided cooling for $0.0060 per kWh which was nearly 10 times cheaper than the cost of cooling provided by a traditional electrically driven vapor compression system onboard a marine vessel.
Open Access
Viability and sustainability of desalinating produced water in the oil and gas industry
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2025) Grauberger, Brandi M., author; Bandhauer, Todd M., advisor; Tong, Tiezheng, advisor; Sharvelle, Sybil, committee member; Quinn, Jason C., committee member
Unconventional oil and gas extraction consumes considerable amounts of water, with up to 11 million gallons of freshwater used for the fracturing of a single well. Millions of gallons can come back to the surface of a well as flowback and produced waters, which are collected and disposed of through deep well injection. Water reallocation and reduction of resource waste can be aided by treating produced water from these operations but is rarely practiced. In particular, treating produced water to zero-liquid-discharge allows for management of dry wastes and generates a clean water source as its only other product. Eliminating the disposal of brines from produced water management would eliminate the need for deep well injection, which has shown to be an unsustainable option for produced water management. A major barrier to produced water treatment is the cost and availability of energy for treatment. Other barriers arise from an incomplete understanding of the system. Specifically, environmental and social impacts of produced water treatment are not understood. For example, it is not known if the discharge of treated produced water will have a negative effect on drinking water supplies or flow of rivers and streams. Without solving these challenges, produced water will continue to be disposed into injection wells, wasting the potential to reduce freshwater consumption, and further threatening seismic stability and access to freshwater reserves in oil and gas producing regions. This work completes three major analyses to understand the potential of produced water desalination. First, the accessibility of waste heat from the oil and gas industry, which is limited due to spatial and temporal disparities in waste heat and produced water production, was quantified and compared to energy requirements for produced water treatment. The results show that there is potential for waste heat utilization by membrane distillation, a thermal-membrane desalination technology option, in the oil and gas industry for produced water desalination with appropriate waste heat storage system integrations. The next major evaluation is of the economic and environmental impacts for multiple zero liquid discharge desalination options. Economic results show that the existing technology of mechanical vapor compression is difficult to reliably challenge, in terms of cost. However, environmental emissions can be much improved when using waste heat as an energy source for desalination or when treating with electrodialytic crystallization. Finally, this work evaluates options for zero liquid discharge desalination in the oil and gas industry using a triple bottom line sustainability framework. This framework considers the economic, environmental, and social competitiveness of technologies in multiple stakeholder-preference scenarios, which weight the importance of the three categories in different ratios. Results show that the use of waste heat is paramount to the consideration of membrane distillation as a technology option in the oil and gas industry. Further results show that the comprehensive consideration of economic, environment, and social impacts provide context to overall fit of technology options in the oil and gas industry. More detail of each major objective of this work are shared in the following paragraphs. The use of waste heat has been proposed to reduce the energy footprint of membrane distillation for flowback and produced water treatment. However, its feasibility has not been fully understood for produced water treatment. Accordingly, the third chapter of this work performed systematic assessments through thermodynamic modelling of waste heat capture, storage, and transportation for decentralized produced water treatment at well pads located in the Denver-Julesburg Basin. A wide range of sensible, phase-change, and thermo-chemical storage materials were assessed for their effectiveness at the utilization of waste heat from on-site hydraulic fracturing engines and natural gas compressor stations, in order to overcome the temporal or spatial mismatch between waste heat availability and produced water generation. Results show that the type of storage material being used can have a high impact on the efficiency of waste heat utilization and the treatment capacity of membrane distillation. Sensible storage materials only utilize sensible heat capacities, while phase-change materials have improved performance because they are able to additionally store latent heat. However, sensible and phase-change storage materials lose 11–83% of heat due to conversion inefficiencies caused by their changing temperatures. Thermo-chemical materials, on the other hand, have the highest potential for use because they collect and release heat at constant temperatures. Three thermo-chemical storage materials (magnesium sulfate, magnesium chloride, and calcium sulfate) were identified as those with the best efficiencies due to their elevated discharge temperatures which reduce the energy consumption of membrane distillation. In addition, these materials have high volumetric energy storage density, which enables capture and transportation of waste heat from remote locations such as natural gas compressor stations to the well sites, yielding up to 70% reduction in transportation costs relative to moving produced water to centralized treatment facilities at natural gas compressor stations. The third chapter of this work demonstrates the importance of selecting appropriate energy storage material for leveraging low-grade thermal energy such as waste heat to power membrane distillation for decentralized wastewater treatment. With more certainty given in the possibility and logistics of using waste heat for the membrane distillation system in the oil and gas industry, further analysis was needed to evaluate new technologies with existing brine desalination technologies in terms of replacement potential. Four technologies were considered: mechanical vapor compression with a crystallizer, electrodialytic crystallization, membrane distillation with a crystallizer using electrical heating, and membrane distillation with a crystallizer using waste heat. The fourth chapter of this work evaluates the economic and environmental competitiveness of said technologies. Zero liquid discharge desalination has garnered considerable attention for its potential to mitigate the impact of water scarcity while minimizing environmental consequences associated with ill-managed brine wastes. In the fourth chapter of this work, the economic and environmental competitiveness of an electrodialytic crystallization system designed in recent works was evaluated. It was found that when compared to existing zero liquid discharge technologies, electrodialytic crystallization could compete economically with the potential to reduce costs of zero liquid discharge by over 60% in optimal conditions. However, this high economic competitiveness is not consistent in more conservative operating scenarios. Furthermore, electrodialytic crystallization has 42% lower global warming potential than existing technologies. Scenario and sensitivity assessments completed in this chapter identify the operating parameters of electrodialytic crystallization that greatly affect economic and environmental impacts. Most notably, improvements to the cost and performance of ion exchange membranes will provide the highest benefit to electrodialytic crystallization competitiveness. With appropriate concentration of future research on these high-impact areas, the economic and environmental viability of electrodialytic crystallization should continue to increase in the coming years and electrodialytic crystallization will compete with existing zero liquid discharge technologies to provide a low-cost, efficient, and low-impact replacement to existing technologies. This chapter also shows the limited viability of membrane distillation with a crystallizer in replacing existing zero liquid discharge technologies due to high costs. In either case of electrical heating or waste heat use for membrane distillation, energy costs or infrastructure costs stemming from high energy intensity of membrane distillation result in costs far exceeding those of existing technologies. Through economic and environmental analysis expand the understanding of the potential for technologies to reach industrial application, further analysis can be leveraged to evaluate the fit of technologies into specific applications based on multiple stakeholder perspectives of the system needs. In the fifth chapter of this work, technology options were qualitatively evaluated under a stakeholder-informed triple bottom line sustainability perspective Chapter 5 of this work evaluates proposed technical solutions to produced water desalination and considers the additional economic, environmental, and social barriers that exist within the oil and gas industrial system. The consideration of these three impact areas (i.e., economic, environmental, and social) are defined as the triple bottom line considerations. The drivers, pressures, states, impacts and responses framework, first developed by the European Environmental Agency and later updated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, was used to support the work of chapter 5 by organizing broad system considerations collected from stakeholder-generated literature into an orderly and approachable list of system indicators to evaluate technology compatibility within the applied system. System indicators are quantified, and overall system compatibility scores are calculated based on a variety of stakeholder preference scenarios. The results show that, given current models, emerging technologies have the potential to compete with existing zero liquid discharge technologies when applied to the oil and gas industry for produced water desalination under applications where stakeholders have low economic preference. Careful consideration of stakeholder preferences is necessary because technologies rank differently based on weightings of economic, environmental, and social impact importance. In summary, through thermodynamic and system modeling, techno-economic analysis, life cycle assessments, and triple bottom line sustainability considerations, four zero liquid discharge desalination technology options for the oil and gas industry (i.e., mechanical vapor compression with a crystallizer, electrodialytic crystallization, membrane distillation with a crystallizer using electrical heating, and membrane distillation with a crystallizer using waste heat) were evaluated for the Denver-Julesburg Basin in Northern Colorado. Overall, development of ion exchange membranes with improved performance for electrodialytic crystallization and developments in lowering membrane distillation energy intensity will determine the future economic competitiveness of electrodialytic crystallization and membrane distillation, respectively, as desalination technology options over mechanical vapor compression. However, when evaluating triple bottom line sustainability, results show potential for applications where there is lower preference to economic performance. In such applications, electrodialytic crystallization and membrane distillation with a crystallizer using waste heat consistently compete with mechanical vapor compression-based systems. Further understanding of the applied system needs and stakeholder preferences will determine overall applicability of technologies into the system.