# A Feasibility Study of Utilizing Nuclear Energy for an Existing MED-TVC Desalination Plant
## 4 Water Cost Estimation
### Oil-Fired Steam Boiler  
A similar analysis was conducted in DEEP, in which an oil-fired steam boiler was selected with a power output of 169 MW (th) and coupled with MED-TVC to estimate the cost of desalinated water. This analysis aims to mimic the current situation of producing desalinated water from heavy crude oil in Saudi Arabia. In 2018, for electricity generation and seawater desalination, the Saudi domestic price for Arab heavy crude oil was 4.4 U.S. dollars per barrel (USD/bbl) [22], which is the oil price used in this study. The economic parameters for the oil-fired steam boiler that are used in the DEEP analysis are addressed in Table 9.  
The cost analysis for the oil-fired steam boiler coupled with MED-TVC was conducted, and it was determined that the cost of water is 0.95 USD/m\({}^{3}\), with a simple payback period of 4.7 years. A sensitivity analysis was performed to investigate the most important factors that strongly impact water cost in this kind of heat source. It is noticed that the specific oil price (USD/MWh) and the carbon tax (USD/ton) are the most sensitive factors that affect the cost of water produced. The specific oil price can be calculated directly from primary oil prices according to the following equation [23]. \[\text{Specific Oil price}\left(\frac{\$}{\text{MWh}}\right)=\frac{\text{primary fuel price}\left(\frac{\$}{\text{bbl}}\right)}{\left(\text{Technology Efficiency}\right)\left(\text{conversion factor of 1.6471}\left(\frac{\text{MWh}}{\text{bbl}}\right)\right)} \tag{8}\]  
The efficiency of boilers operated using crude oil ranges from 89% to 92% [24,25]. Hence, the boiler efficiency in Equation (8) is assumed to be 90% in this analysis. Table 10 shows specific oil prices for selected crude oil prices, whereas Figure 8 shows the water cost (USD/m\({}^{3}\)) versus specific oil prices (USD/MWh). It can be seen that the cost of water production is highly affected by the crude oil price. The cost of water is almost doubled when crude oil is purchased for USD 30/bbl. Also, when the oil price is considered to be the same as the global price nowadays, which is around USD 90/bbl, the water cost will be equal to 4.38 USD/m\({}^{3}\), which is not affordable for consumers. Having that said, the cost of desalinated water produced by utilizing crude oil in Saudi Arabia is cheap since the country is oil-rich with huge reserves underground. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c} \hline \hline \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Oil-Fired Steam Boiler Economic Parameters**} \\ \hline Construction Duration & 18 months \\ \hline Lifetime & 35 years \\ \hline Specific Construction Cost (EPC) & 50 USD/kW (th) \\ \hline Specific Fuel Cost & 3 USD/MWh \\ \hline Specific O\&M Cost & 1 USD/MWh \\ \hline Discount Rate (WACC) & 5\% \\ \hline Interest During Construction (IDC) & 5\% \\ \hline Annual Fuel Escalation & 2\% \\ \hline Tax rate & 20\% \\ \hline Loan Duration & 20 years \\ \hline \hline \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Desalination Plant Economic Parameters**} \\ \hline Construction Duration & 30 months \\ \hline Lifetime & 30 years \\ \hline Water Purchase Price & 1.9 USD/m\({}^{3}\) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 9: Economic parameters for oil-fired boiler and desalination plant. However, there is a massive amount of value within crude oil, and it is being wasted by just simply burning it for heat generation. It can be processed and refined to produce higher-value products. Consequently, if the government decided to increase domestic oil prices for all consumers, including water producers, the nuclear option would be more competitive just above the USD 15/bbl oil price mark. On the other hand, considering taxation for GHG emissions is the second factor that affects water prices. Currently, in Saudi Arabia, no carbon tax is imposed on power and water producers nor in other industries, such as oil and gas and petrochemicals.