Emerging technologies in water desalination: A review and future outlook

• Emerging desalination technologies for sustainable water solutions are analysed. • New advancements in SED, SCDI, SPPD, CDI-HS, MD, and FO technologies are evaluated. • Key challenges in desalination and future research directions are identified. • Improvements in solar energy efficiency, materials, and energy recovery are noted. • Innovative solutions for efficiency, scalability, and sustainability are proposed. This review analyses emerging desalination technologies that offer sustainable solutions to global water scarcity and address unresolved issues. This study examines solar electrochemical distillation (SED), integrated solar capacitive deionisation (SCDI) and capacitive deionisation hybrid systems…