Desalination Plants

With the water crisis being seen around the world, even right here in the United States, we need to explore other options to supply fresh water to the residents. One State, in particular, that raises concern is the state of California. An alternative method to supply water to residents could be the process of desalination. Desalination is when fresh water is made by using either seawater or brackish and eliminating the minerals and salts as a way to make the water safe for human and agriculture uses ( Kesieme et al., 2013). In recent years, we have seen an increase the in the number of desalination plants around the United States (fig 1). However, is the process of desalination the answer for the water crisis going on in California? As a

Today, desalination is a common process that's used in seaside cities and towns worldwide. There are more than 15,000 desalination plants around the world providing freshwater from salt and brackish water alike (Planet Green 2011). This number continues to grow as researchers work to improve the process, both in terms of cost effectiveness and energy efficiency (DSE 2011). But countries such as Australia, Israel and even the United States are continually adding desalination plants of various sorts into their water-management portfolios. The facilities are common in North Africa and the Mideast, where freshwater is scarce (Chandler 2008).

The disadvantages of desalination is that in order for a desalination plant to be a viable alternative to the water supply dam, the users must be located fairly close to a coast or large source of oceanic water. The desalination technology can also have adverse environmental impacts of its own. The plants are very energy intensive and must dispose of a highly concentrated saline byproduct into the ocean, which can cause adverse affects to marine life in the surrounding and exceeding areas. Waste brine can also

1. There are two main sources of fresh drinking water, ground water and surface water. Ground water originates from precipitations that usually fall in the form of snow or rain. While, the surface water is also originates from precipitate that reaches the land surface and is then recharged into rivers, wetlands and lakes. Although these systems are usually reliable, in desperate time of need, a more reliable source of water is needed. The desalination plant is extremely valuable and flexible because it does not depend on rainfall. Instead, the desalination plant is the only source that relies on seawater. Using seawater in the desalination plant helps meet the community’s water needs and secures the water needs in the future. While other sources of water, such as rainwater or water from dames are not reliable enough to strictly rely

Desalinated water is critical to Perth’s water supply as Western Australia continues to experience a drying, arid climate. It is important that a reliance on traditional water sources such as dams are reviewed and new and sustainable sources that are climate independent are implemented. Factors of a drying climate, extreme weather conditions, population increase (Population in Perth to double in the next 50 years) and the way we currently source out water need to be evaluated in order to ensure a climate resilient supply that is independent of varied amounts of rainfall. Desalinated water is critical to Perth’s water supply due to the states large infrastructure and mining industry.

In the peaceful island country of Tuvalu, there is no genocide, no civil unrest, but no fresh water source. Rainwater harvesting is the primary source of fresh water. Rainwater collected from roofs, to gutters, and stored in tanks; unfortunately, these tanks are poorly maintained, or damaged by tropical cyclones, resulting in a lack of water (Kingston, 2012). Three out of the nine islands that make up the country of Tuvalu have a natural water source; however, the three islands with a natural water source, have issues with their septic system, and it contaminates their aquifer, and its thin fresh water lens. The purpose of this paper is to provide the country of Tuvalu a plan to establish a permanent desalinization plant for the country to have a consistent source of safe, clean drinking water.

Desalination is the removal of salt and impurities from groundwater or seawater to produce fresh drinking water. Desalination is a secure water source that doesn’t depend on rainfall and has become a significant water source that has been strengthened through its decrease in production costs and related technological improvements. The process of Desalination is another means of securing Western Australia’s future water supply. Western Australia has two main plants, Perth Seawater Desalination Plant and Southern Seawater Desalination Plant, both of these plants deliver water to the Integrated Water Supply Scheme which supplies water to over 2 million people in Perth, parts of the South West, parts of the Agricultural region and the Kalgoorlie-Boulder

All major desalination plants in Australia incorporate energy recovery devices to minimize overall energy requirements. Also, a worldwide research and development effort is currently devoted to reducing the energy consumption of desalination processes. A report by CSIRO and WSAA has identified that the energy demand profile for water supplies was influenced by the uptake of desalination in Australian cities. “In South East Queensland, desalinated and recycled water made up around 10% of the water supplied in 2009/10. The treatment energy for these rainfall independent water sources made up more than 40% of the total energy for water supply treatment and pumping.”(Cook, Hall & Gregory

There are many ways to desalinate water to make them drinkable and they are proven and effective, and a few of them are reverse osmosis, multi- stage flash distillation and freezing. Reverse osmosis is when pressure is put on the water and forces the water through a membrane so that the water and salt separate, it has been proven effective in creating fresh sources of drinking water that can deliver the health benefits people need. When properly designed, desalination plants can then create drinkable water that is of high quality. This process can be used on different types of water, including brackish (low salinity) water and seawater [Science Direct].

Desalination is making dirty or unsanitary water potable. One way to desalinate water is by using a seawater desalination plant (taking the salt out of sea water) how this works is by using an intake pipe which travels to the plant from the ocean, then there is a screening plant which takes out large things like seaweed, then they add substances to help with the coagulation to bind smaller particles together to create larger ones to go to the next stage which is the dual media tanks. Dual media tanks are large tanks that have a layer of coal and a layer of sand the water filters through these layers filtering out large particles, then it goes through a large cartridge that contains little straws with small holes at which the water is pushed

As of late there has been a renewed interest in the use of forward osmosis as a potential method for seawater desalination. The reestablished interest for research into forward osmosis process originates from its capability to either reduce energy utilization or generate energy.

Desalination is a way to create healthy, clean drinking water. Desalination is the process of removing salt from water. There are many types of desalination including; reverse osmosis, forward osmosis, electrodialysis, thermal desalination, multiple effect desalination, and multistage flash desalination. All types of desalination include filtering water, using a variety of ways to remove the salt. The clean water, and separated salt can, and are used. Electricity, filters, membranes and heat are used to cleanse the water, so it is able to be used by humans, safely. Desalination is an efficient way the remove salt from seawater, and convert contaminated water to

The Thermal pollution is considered as one of the most major impacts of brine discharge which can occur by increasing the temperature of sea water. Several studies have been carried out to determine how the distribution and natural balance of marine fauna and flora species respond to an alteration in temperature [5]. Multi-stage flash (MSF) plants and other types of thermal distillation tend to have the greatest impact on intake water temperature, and can release brines 10 to15 C° warmer than sea or oceanic intake waters [6]. However , extent of thermal impacts and distribution is influenced by the location of the plant discharge. Temperature of intake seawater was between 15 and 24 ºC, while the temperature of disposal water recorded around 35 ºC, which is greater than the Mediterranean sea temperature .This difference in temperature is the main reason to make thermal pollution and therefore, has aside effects on marine life .

The seawater used in most plants contain high amounts of two chemicals, called boron and bromide, and the process can also remove minerals like calcium. Also when they finished processing the salt out of the water, they put the salt left over back into the ocean, which the salinity affects the oceans environments. So, there are disadvantages and advantages to during the process, and there are even worse consequences if they run out of water. Concerns with the large amount of desalination plants in the Middle East focus on the improper dependency they will cause, instead of encouraging alternate forms of water and energy and conserving freshwater. Though they are lacking water, they have one resource they won't run out of for a while.

The mean values of selected analytical water quality parameters, among the four seasons from April 2015 to February 2016, revealed that generally most selected physico-chemical properties (Temp., pH, E.C., Ak., Turb., T. hard., D.O, B.O.D, NO3, NO2, NH3, Cl-) of water samples were within permissible limit (WHO 2004).