Desalination System In Australia

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.

The Perth Desalination plant cost a total of $387 million. The annual running costs equals $20 million which equates to less than one dollar per week per household. The water produced from the plant has been estimated to cost $1.17/kl. The plant uses 180GWh/year and is sourced from Emu Downs Wind Farm, a local renewable energy generator near Geraldton and Cervantes. Although Desalination uses more energy than other water sources (i.e. gravity feeding water out of a dam). Different measures have been put in place to make the plant as economical and environmentally sustainable such as using energy from a sustainable source and by choosing the Reverse Osmosis technology. Reverse Osmosis is more economical and environmentally sustainable than other

Desalination a process through which salt water is pumped from the ocean in to a treatment facility, and then the salt is extracted to make it possible to be used domestically. This is a long drawn out process, which involves seven different steps. The steps of desalination include the following steps explained by Eco Chem “Step 1. Seawater enters the desalination plant through an intake system about 300 meters offshore. Water enters at a low speed to avoid impacts on marine life. Step 2. Seawater passes through an initial screening to remove any debris. Step 3. Seawater is filtered to remove any fine particles. Step 4. Filtered seawater passes through the reverse osmosis membranes Step 5. Desalinated water is treated to meet strict Australian Water Guidelines. Step 6. Drinking water is pumped into the water distribution network. Step 7. Seawater concentrate is safely discharged to the ocean and dispersed through outlet diffusers about 300 meters offshore.” The steps of desalination are a very difficult and tedious task, which can be problematic.

Abstract: In the last few decades, large scale desalination plants have been constructed in countries where water scarcity is an issue in hopes of providing these countries with additional water resources. As the number of water crises increases globally, the number of desalination plants is expected to increase as well. Although the technology has rapidly advanced since the first use of these plants, the financial and energy impact is deemed by some to not be worth the cost compared to the use of traditional water treatment technologies. In this paper, I examine the pros and cons of desalination by using empirical data, along with real examples to discuss the effectiveness and potential of desalination plants long term.

Desalination is the process that removes minerals from saline water. Desalination of water is more costly than collecting freshwater from rivers or groundwater. Nevertheless, these sources are not always available and the depletion of these sources is a worldwide problem. According to Global Water Intel, "Currently, approximately 1% of the world 's population is dependent on desalinated water to meet daily needs, but the UN expects that 14% of the world 's population will encounter water scarcity by 2025." This shows that desalination will have a huge demand and impact on human life in the near future. There are many key issues when it comes to desalination. These issues include cost, methods used, and environmental issues.

The current method used to desalinate water is multi-stage desalination (thermal desalination), which requires a significant amount of energy. As research has shown, for every cubic meter of desalinated water, 1.3 kWh of electricity and 48.5 kWh of heat are consumed [1] which shows that more than 90% percent of the energy supplied is wasted as heat. Furthermore, the current methods utilize non-renewable sources of energy, which eventually produce greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. These non-renewable sources of energy, mainly fossil fuels are short in supply and eventually will run out. Therefore, it is important to look for an environment-friendly long-term solution.

The groundwater storage has been depleted through the various sources of human consumption. In many places the quality of groundwater became a concern that can harm human health because of the overexploitation as well as contamination. Without a constant source of water human survival can be threatened. Therefore, methods of supplying fresh water such as desalination processes have become very popular and widely studied because of

Australia, as the driest inhabited continent, had installed 331 desalination plants supplying high quality water to the increasing population. Another country, China, also implete the use of desalination plants to tackle the drought and large population problems. This section will compare several technologies used in these two countries. As shown in Table 1, RO is the most used technology in both countries, accounting for 61.03% in Australia and 81.3% in China.

Desalination plant – The desalination plant convert seawater into drinkable fresh water using osmosis. By the water industry using this technology they are trying to diversify its dependence on rain-fed water sources. These plants are capital and energy intensive to operate when being used. During times of droughts the industry’s water supply will be extra secure.

It’s expected that 1.8 billion people will suffer from severe water shortage by 2025, and the trend will continue to get worse as it is estimated that by 2050 the number will increase to 3.9 billion people. That’s over one third of the world’s population! Water desalinization is a costly process and extreme measures need to be taken into making the process more cost effective in the future to avoid possible global catastrophe.

Modern desalination projects use a method called “reverse osmosis,” which separates the salt from ocean water by pushing the water through a membrane at high pressures. The idea of desalination is not a new one; today, over 12,000 desalination plants operate around the globe . However, while the idea seems sound, the actual implementation of the process costs extraordinary amounts of money due to the large amounts of energy needed to run the process. Many of the 12,000 desalination plants that are in operation are located in coastal regions of high affluence. Yet, the areas in dire need of freshwater include the Middle East and northern Africa, which areas of limited water access and financial support. If the costs of energy use in the desalination process cannot be lowered it will not be able to solve the fresh water problem.

Water is a very essential component of living things on this world. It comprises three quarters of earth. We need fresh water for agriculture, drinking, medical and many other different purposes. But the renewable fresh water supply is less than 0.3% which is not enough [2]. It is really very hard to get fresh water for people who live near coastal areas to travel very long and get water for them. That is the reason why desalination came into existence where seawater is used as a source to produce potable water for use. The population grown bothered more for the demand of more fresh water. The fresh water resources like rivers, lakes are slowly getting lost or either getting salty [6]. There were several different approaches of desalinating the seawater to

Australia’s a country that is completely surrounded by water, so one would not imagine that they experience too many water related issues. The country is home to more than 10% of the entire world’s biodiversity. This makes it an importantly major part of the world’s ecosystem. Australia is over 2 million square miles and houses a population of around 22 million. The arid climate, large expanses of unused land, and wasteful uses of water all lead to a plethora of water related issues. Australia relies on both its freshwater and saltwater for environmental, economic, and social reasons.

Desalination is the process in which excess salt water and other minerals are removed from water to make it consumable (Rosadoi, Moraisii, 2010). This source of water is very expensive to operate in rural areas of Kenya because the materials and running cost is on the high side. It has a lot of environmental impact, positively it is an additional source of water supply and it helps to keep the groundwater aquifers from going dry however the side effect of desalination is that it leads to the emission of greenhouse gases, large production of concentrated brine, discharge of salt by-product which is harmful to people residing around. Water born diseases will be reduced drastically and also creates job opportunities due to large industrial plants for processing. Source of steady electricity power to make this plant work will be a major concern and a large number of inhabitants make lack the technological knowledge to operate the desalination plants.

Desalination continues to assist various countries such as Saudi Arabia in increasing their supply of freshwater to the public. In his report, Alghariani (2003) suggests that the expense of spare parts, maintenance and training costs, as well as the difficulty of some processes involved, has lead to the low production volume from desalination techniques, however, Lisa Henthorne of the International Desalination Association, claims that as of 2009, there were 14,451 desalination plants with a combined production volume of 59.9 million cubic metres per day, indicating an increase in the supply of freshwater. Although seawater desalination removes most of the contaminants in the water, and not all, it still provides means for utilizing the ocean, which is the world’s main water resource, and this continues to deliver high quality water, which is suitable for human consumption, therefore making significant contributions to the supply of water to arid regions.