Topic: Water Desalination Title: Sustainable water desalination using Membrane distillation 1.0 Aim The aim of this study is to analyze sustainable water desalination by using membrane distillation process as well to highlight the significance sources of energy. Methods in harnessing this energy includes the use of evacuated tube solar collectors and salinity gradient solar pond technology. 2.0 Central questions The main question of this study is: How can the lack of clean water in the entire globe be reduced? Related questions may include; 1. What can international institutions, governments, and research organizations do to reduce the problem of the lack of clean water? 2. What type of technologies should be developed to improve …show more content…
The cause of deaths every year in poorer countries is attributed to the lack of clean water and at the same time, in affluent countries, the need for clean drinking water is continuously increasing (Kucera, 2014). Thus, the need for the development of new means for the production of the clean drinking water is a high priority for international organizations, governments, and agencies doing research. Sustainable water desalination using Membrane distillation can make a major contribution to meeting the demand for clean for distillation water. Membrane Distillation is a process that looks more promising in the current approaches used. However, the process raises the issues of energy efficiency. The process of water desalination involves the separation of dissolved salts and other minerals contained in the water. The sources of water may include seawater, wells, rivers and wastewater. There are some driving forces that are required to do membrane separation. These include pressure, electrical potential, and concentration in order to overcome natural osmotic pressures and to be able to force water through the membrane in an effective way. The plant using this technology requires a lot of energy. The demand for energy and the production of wastewater have made desalination plants controversial. The high energy demanded, therefore, has to be reduced in order to continue the process easily. As a result, a new technology has been devised that uses the very minimal amount of electricity and has the potential of saving huge amounts of water. The technology used in membrane distillation uses waste heat to do the evaporation of wastewater through a fine membrane.
Desalination is a great way to help people. Many areas do not have fresh water resources such as rivers and lakes. Taking out the salt from seawater will provide lots of people. This is needed where there is not a lot of natural drinking water. “People are building the Carlsbad desalination project. When it is completed, the huge plant will turn as many as 56 million gallons of seawater each day into drinking
If residents and corporations throughout the United States continue to frivolously waste water and refuse to make painless changes and upgrades around their homes, it will continue to increase in cost to people across the United States. For example, as a result of the water shortage crisis currently afflicting the southwestern United States, the city of San Diego, California, is currently constructing a desalination plant, located in Carlsbad, California. The idea of a desalination plant is to collect undrinkable saltwater from the ocean and, using reverse osmosis and other filtering techniques, remove the salt to produce clean, potable water (Barnett). However, there are many downsides to relying on desalination practices to provide for a city the size of San Diego. First and foremost, it is considerably more expensive to produce clean drinking water from saltwater as opposed to using regular surface water or groundwater. The act of filtering the water alone can be twice as expensive as traditional filtration methods. In addition, desalination plants consume much more energy than traditional treatment plants, mostly due to the fact that the filtration methods are much more involved. Desalination consumes twice as much power as recycled plants, and four times as much as pumping groundwater (Newell, Roohk and Reardon). For example, the Carlsbad plant alone will require the same amount of electricity as is used to power 125,000 homes in California. However, the biggest
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).
-Article 1- Ghaffour, N., M. Missimer, T., & L. Amy, G. (2013). Desalination (Technical review and evaluation of the economics of water desalination: Current and future challenges for better water supply sustainability) (Vol. 309, pp. 197-207). Thuwal.
The advantages of desalination represents an opportunity to use oceanic water resources. If the appropriate conditions are present, a desalination plant could potentially be used to replace an existing or future dam. As existing sources of useable water run dry, desalination is a very effective, alternative source of water. On top of that the distillation process produces one of the highest quality water, with a range of 1 to 50 ppm tds, tds is also known as total dissolved solids. With the recommended California standard being 500 ppm, this quality of water is far beyond any other water quality seen before.
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
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 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
Desalination is the process of removing dissolved salts from water which makes it more useful and it makes it so if you drink the water you will not dehydrate faster and die.The water after the desalination process is utilised for drinking water , crops like corn and wheat , showers , washers , municipal / potable use and for agricultural irrigation but is also used extensively in many other applications where high quality water is required .
When examining the process of desalination there are several advantages and disadvantages of the process that need to be examined, starting with the advantages. One of the major advantages of this process according to Gude (2016) is having the option to use renewable energy for the process instead of using fossil fuels. He states this is better for our environment and there will always be access to the wind, solar, or wave energy being produced compared to our fossil fuels which already are at a risk of running out. Haddad has also stated that renewable energy resources are better for our environment compared to fossil fuels, as they reduce our carbon footprint and the risk of climate change. Another advantage that can
As world population increases along with demand for clean water desalination will become an increasingly important part of our water supply in the 21st century. We will not run out of water but we will pay more for receiving it in potable
Water desalination processes separate dissolved salts and other minerals from water. Feed water sources may include brackish, seawater, wells, surface (rivers and streams), wastewater, and industrial feed and process waters. Membrane separation requires driving forces including pressure (applied and vapor), electric potential, and concentration to overcome natural osmotic pressures and effectively force water through membrane processes. As such, the technology is energy intensive and research is continually evolving to improve efficiency and reduce energy consumption.
Big scale desalination is a procedure through which sea water is pumped to a treatment office where the salt is extricated through a procedure of reverse osmosis to make the water fit for household use. San Diego County is at present developing the biggest desalination plant in the western side of the equator, at an expense of $1 billion. That plant, situated in Carlsbad, will give enough safe water to around 300,000 individuals, and will serve as a noteworthy test of the practicality and cost of utility-scale desalination innovation when it starts operation in November.
Desalination is the most common process in the world, and because of the low percentage of fresh water and the consumption of groundwater reservoirs in many daily human uses such as, (Drinking, washing, bathing and also for agriculture and other uses...), and the entry of water in industries by a large proportion of between 70-90% so the water is an essential component in some industrial products, and also used as a refrigerant for the machines. Therefore, salt water desalination and reuse in industries and their appropriate uses have been
As time goes by, the fresh water supplement for living on the earth planet will become a serious problem [1-3]. In addition, the Middle East is mentioned as one of the poorest regions in all over the world in terms of water resources with less than 1% of the total available global freshwater per capita [4, 5]. Therefore, one of the strategic options to satisfy the current and future request for fresh water in countries established around Gulf is to build up desalination units. So, immediate need has arisen to construct economic units for water desalination. Nowadays, it has been proved that membrane separation processes have several advantages for desalination and water reuse of contaminated resources in comparison to the conventional separation methods [1, 6-8].