Seawater desalination is an important option for addressing the world's water supply challenges. Current desalination plants use enormous quantities of energy and cause a number of environmental issues. Renewable energy options, mostly solar and geothermal systems, have been examined in detail to supply the energy needed for water desalination. The co-location benefit of energy derived from the ocean to power seawater desalination processes is appealing. However, the promise and potential of ocean-based power generation for desalination systems has not been investigated in detail. The development of such systems has been limited due to technological and economic limitations of energy harvesting and transport as well as device maintenance under water. In this paper, we review the state of the art of ocean energy in desalination. It explores different sources of energy from the ocean that include electricity generation, as well as mechanical force and thermal energy and salinity gradients that can also be directly harnessed for powering the desalination processes. We also examine recent advances in scaling up for commercial deployment, and discuss relevant cost, environmental and social concerns. The great potential of ocean energy for seawater desalination in terms of diverse energy forms, flexible integration methods and various deployment strategies can provide important environmental, water and social benefits for seawater desalination, thus promote sustainability in water-energy nexus. The use of ocean energy in desalination applications could benefit the future development of ocean energy technology in renewable energy sector.

海水淡化是应对世界供水挑战的重要选择。当前的海水淡化厂消耗大量能量，并引起许多环境问题。已对可再生能源选项（主要是太阳能和地热系统）进行了详细研究，以提供淡化海水所需的能源。从海洋中获取的能源在同一地点的收益为海水淡化过程提供了动力，这是吸引人的。但是，尚未详细研究海水淡化系统发电的前景和潜力。由于能量收集和运输以及水下设备维护的技术和经济限制，此类系统的开发受到了限制。在本文中，我们回顾了海水淡化技术的现状。它探索了来自海洋的各种能源，包括发电，机械力，热能和盐度梯度，这些梯度也可以直接利用来为海水淡化过程提供动力。我们还将研究在扩大规模以进行商业部署方面的最新进展，并讨论相关的成本，环境和社会问题。从多种能源形式，灵活的整合方法和各种部署策略等方面来看，海洋能源在海水淡化方面的巨大潜力可以为海水淡化提供重要的环境，水和社会效益，从而促进水能联系的可持续性。在海水淡化应用中使用海洋能可能有益于可再生能源领域海洋能技术的未来发展。