.jpg)
BRIGHT MIND
HEALTHY BODY
S U S T A I N A B L E P L A N E T
HEALTHY BODY
S U S T A I N A B L E P L A N E T
D E S A L I N A T I O N
Of the more than 7,500 desalination plants in operation worldwide, 60% are located in the Middle East. One of the world's largest plants in Saudi Arabia produces 128 MGD of desalted water. In contrast, 12% of the world's capacity is produced in the Americas, with most of the plants located in the Caribbean and Florida. To date, only a limited number of desalination plants have been built along the California coast, primarily because the cost of desalination is generally higher than the costs of other water supply alternatives available in California (e.g., water transfers and groundwater pumping). However, as drought conditions occur and concern over water availability increases, desalination projects are being proposed at numerous locations in the state of California.
Desalination Process
Waste Discharges
Desalination plants produce liquid wastes that may contain all or some of the following constituents: high salt concentrations, chemicals used during defouling of plant equipment and pretreatment, and toxic metals (which are most likely to be present if the discharge water was in contact with metallic materials used in construction of the plant facilities). Liquid wastes may be discharged directly into the ocean, combined with other discharges (e.g., power plant cooling water or sewage treatment plant effluent) before ocean discharge, discharged into a sewer for treatment in a sewage treatment plant, or dried out and disposed of in a landfill. Desalination plants also produce a small amount of solid waste (e.g., spent pretreatment filters and solid particles that are filtered out in the pretreatment process).
[Seawater Desalination]
The Negative Aspects of Desalination Plants
<> Amount of energy use
* Energy intensive, the proposed [Sydney] plant would increase electricity use by 1.5 per cent
<> Waste by-products
* high salt concentration in the brine, several chemical products used in the desalination process
<> Locations
* environmental impact
<> Cost
* Construction [labor, materials, equipment]
* Maintenance
* Operating costs:
Treatment costs are affected by salinity and
overall water quality. High salinity water (e.g.
seawater) consumes more energy and is therefore
more costly to desalinate.....From a water source perspective, desalination of brackish groundwater is the least costly. Surface waters (e.g. tidal waters) contain higher salinity and other impurities. Treatment of high salinity water requires more pre-treatment and a combination of various technologies....
Desalination Process
Waste Discharges
Desalination plants produce liquid wastes that may contain all or some of the following constituents: high salt concentrations, chemicals used during defouling of plant equipment and pretreatment, and toxic metals (which are most likely to be present if the discharge water was in contact with metallic materials used in construction of the plant facilities). Liquid wastes may be discharged directly into the ocean, combined with other discharges (e.g., power plant cooling water or sewage treatment plant effluent) before ocean discharge, discharged into a sewer for treatment in a sewage treatment plant, or dried out and disposed of in a landfill. Desalination plants also produce a small amount of solid waste (e.g., spent pretreatment filters and solid particles that are filtered out in the pretreatment process).
[Seawater Desalination]
The Negative Aspects of Desalination Plants
<> Amount of energy use
* Energy intensive, the proposed [Sydney] plant would increase electricity use by 1.5 per cent
<> Waste by-products
* high salt concentration in the brine, several chemical products used in the desalination process
<> Locations
* environmental impact
<> Cost
* Construction [labor, materials, equipment]
* Maintenance
* Operating costs:
Treatment costs are affected by salinity and
overall water quality. High salinity water (e.g.
seawater) consumes more energy and is therefore
more costly to desalinate.....From a water source perspective, desalination of brackish groundwater is the least costly. Surface waters (e.g. tidal waters) contain higher salinity and other impurities. Treatment of high salinity water requires more pre-treatment and a combination of various technologies....
Desalination, desalinization, or desalinisation refers to any of several processes that remove excess salt and other minerals from water. Water is desalinated in order to be converted to fresh water suitable for consumption or irrigation, or, if almost all of the salt is removed, for human consumption. Sometimes the process produces table salt as a by-product. It is used on many ships and submarines. Most of the modern interest in desalination is focused on developing cost-effective ways of providing fresh water for human use in regions where the availability of water is limited.
Large-scale desalination typically requires large amounts of energy as well as specialized, expensive infrastructure, making it very costly compared to the use of fresh water from rivers or groundwater. The large energy reserves of many Middle Eastern countries, along with their relative water scarcity, have led to extensive construction of desalination in this region. Saudi Arabia's desalination plants account for about 24% of total world capacity.
One of the world's largest desalination plants is the Jebel Ali Desalination Plant (Phase 2) in the United Arab Emirates. It is a dual-purpose facility that uses multi-stage flash distillation and is capable of producing 300 million cubic meters (243,000 acre feet) of water per year.
Also stated as the world's largest desalination plant is in Ashkelon, Israel, now providing and selling 165,000 m3 of water per day. The Ashkelon plant is comprised of a North and South plant, each designed to produce 165,000 m3/D making a total of 330,000 m3/D of produced water.
The Tampa Bay, FL desalination plant, the largest in the United States, began desalinating 34.7 million cubic meters (28,740 acre feet) of water per year in December 2007. The Tampa Bay plant runs at around 12% the output of the Jebel Ali Desalination Plants.
A Wall Street Journal [1-17-08] article states, "World-wide, 13,080 desalination plants produce more than 12 billion U.S. gallons (45,000,000 m³) of water a day, according to the International Desalination Association."
Source: Wikipedia
Large-scale desalination typically requires large amounts of energy as well as specialized, expensive infrastructure, making it very costly compared to the use of fresh water from rivers or groundwater. The large energy reserves of many Middle Eastern countries, along with their relative water scarcity, have led to extensive construction of desalination in this region. Saudi Arabia's desalination plants account for about 24% of total world capacity.
One of the world's largest desalination plants is the Jebel Ali Desalination Plant (Phase 2) in the United Arab Emirates. It is a dual-purpose facility that uses multi-stage flash distillation and is capable of producing 300 million cubic meters (243,000 acre feet) of water per year.
Also stated as the world's largest desalination plant is in Ashkelon, Israel, now providing and selling 165,000 m3 of water per day. The Ashkelon plant is comprised of a North and South plant, each designed to produce 165,000 m3/D making a total of 330,000 m3/D of produced water.
The Tampa Bay, FL desalination plant, the largest in the United States, began desalinating 34.7 million cubic meters (28,740 acre feet) of water per year in December 2007. The Tampa Bay plant runs at around 12% the output of the Jebel Ali Desalination Plants.
A Wall Street Journal [1-17-08] article states, "World-wide, 13,080 desalination plants produce more than 12 billion U.S. gallons (45,000,000 m³) of water a day, according to the International Desalination Association."
Source: Wikipedia
Sustainable Life Info Copyright © 2006-2008 DLH Business Associates. All rights reserved.