DESALINATION, A RELIABLE SOURCE OF NEW WATER

by
Ghassan Ejjeh
President of International Desalination Association
Director SA. BESIX NV Belgium and SIX CONSTRUCT UAE
Avenue Des Communautes 100, 1200 Brussels, Belgium

Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear colleagues

1) INTRODUCTION

It is an honour to be given the opportunity to address such a distinguished

gathering. I would like to commence by thanking the Department of
Environment, Government of Aragon for inviting me to participate in this
important event. I am very pleased to see conferences such as this taking place.
Water is too precious a commodity to be handled by any section of society on
its own. We are all stakeholders, we are all contributing to the shortages, and to
the resulting environmental and economic impact of this use.
2) ABSTRACT
In my presentation to you today I shall talk about the History of the development of
Desalination and its proven status as a reliable source of new water.
It is now technically and economically feasible to produce large volumes of water of
suitable quality through the desalination of seawater, brackish water, or through the
reuse of other waters. This is being done today at many locations at an acceptable
cost. Capital costs of various technologies, as well as their operation and maintenance,
are rapidly falling as a result of the improvement, and better understanding of existing
technologies, greater attention to details and development of better chemicals.
I shall give an overview of existing technologies, their costs and future trends and
conclude by showing that Desalination is now a mature technology capable of
meeting the demands called on it as the World Water crisis deepens.
3) HISTORY OF DEVELOPMENT
The principal technologies used in desalination(multi-stage flash, , multi-effect,
evaporation, vapour recompression, electrodialysis, and reverse osmosis) are based on
concepts that are fairly easy to grasp by those with a modest about of scientific
training and/or technical experience. Some have been known about for centuries.
Ancient civilisations already discovered that salt water becomes sweet, when it turns
to vapour, and remains so after it condenses. For at least 2000 years simple batch stills

were the only technology available. Sailors of Ancient Greece were using these
devices on their vessels.
In the 1840s, efforts to improve efficiency of evaporation in the production of cane
sugar from cane juices led to a major breakthrough in energy utilisation. Heat released
during condensation was utilised to evaporate additional water in a subsequent vessel
maintained at a lower pressure than the first( and thus with a correspondingly lower
boiling point) Vapour released in this second vessel was conveyed to a third vessel(at
an even lower pressure) for condensation and more vapour generation. This sequence
was repeated several times, thus recycling the heat of vaporisation. The practice
became known as Multi-Effect (ME) Evaporation.
In the late 1800s, other industrial demands for energy efficient evaporation led to the
development of a mechanically driven evaporation system. A mechanical pump
pulled a partial vacuum on an aqueous solution, causing evaporation of a portion of
the water. This vapour was then condensed by increased pressure. If the evaporating
and condensing chambers were thermally linked by a heat exchange surface, the heat
of the vaporisation could be recycled as was the case with ME. Such systems
became known as Mechanical Vapour Compression (MVC)
In the early 1900s, French research on steam jets and aspirator systems led to the
development of the Thermal Vapour Compression (TVC) approach. In this variation
on MVC, the mechanical pump was replaced with a medium pressure steam jet,
which both drew a vacuum on the evaporating side of the system and provided
compressed vapour to the condensing side.
In the 1950s and 60s, the need for even larger desalination units, especially in the
Arabian Gulf and some island communities, outstripped the capabilities of even ME.
In addition deposition of insoluble inorganic scale on heat exchange surfaces
necessitated frequent shut-downs for scale removal and cleaning. This led to
reconsideration of flash evaporation on which the solution is heated above its
normal boiling point under pressure. When the pressure is released, a portion of the
water spontaneously evaporates. As evaporation occurs from the bulk solution and
not on the heat exchange surface as is the case with MRE, the problems of scale
formation could be (and were) significantly reduced.
The practical breakthrough in this approach came in the late 50s and early 60s when
researchers in Scotland and the United States independently and simultaneously came
to the realisation that linking a large number off flashing vessels in the series, each
held at a lower pressure and temperature, optimised productivity and minimised total
heat exchange surface area (an important cost component).
Coupled with steam turbine generating stations and using low pressure steam
extracted from these turbines as thermal energy source, the combined electricity and
water production fortuitously occurs at a ratio close to that of power/water demand
ratio of many developing communities. This factor, combined with its reliable
operation and ability to be scaled up in size beyond the limits of ME, led to the rapid
acceptance of MSF
While evaporative technologies had been the backbone of desalination for centuries,
there was a growing perception that a process that did not involve a phase change
might offer energy savings. Two such approaches, both involving selectively
permeable synthetic membranes, made their appearance in the 1950s.

The first involved membranes permeable to dissolved salts but not to water. It had
been known for some time that passage of a direct current through an electrolyte
caused migration of ions towards the electrodes of opposite charge.. But as soon as
concentration gradients developed, back diffusion of these ions limited the effect.
Synthetic ion exchange materials, developed during the 1940s, were found to make
excellent membranes selectively permeable to either cations or anions. This process
became known as Electrodialysis (ED) and was commercialised in the 1960s.
The second membrane approach utilised semi-permeable films that rejected salt
passage but were permeable to water. When there is no external pressure differential
across such a film, natural osmotic pressures cause water to migrate from the more
dilute side to the more concentrated. However, if pressure is applied to the
concentrated side greater than the prevailing osmotic pressure, the process can be
reversed.
This concept, dubbed Reverse Osmosis (RO), had been anticipated for many years but
no membranes existed with adequate water permeability, salt rejection, and
mechanical strength to make a working system practical. This all changed in the
1960s with the discovery of fabrication techniques to produce a cellulose acetate film
having a graded or asymmetric pore structure.
4) STATUS OF DESALINATION
It has been demonstrated during the last 20 years that it is now technically and
economically feasible to generate large volumes of water of suitable purity through
the desalination of seawater, brackish water, and water reuse. Plants ranging up to 270
million gallons per day (mgd) in one location and comprising single trains of over 14
mgd have performed reliably, delivering water of high purity at cost which is
acceptable in the regions where the plants were built.
The sea is the unlimited source of water. The challenge is to convert the seawater to
fresh water by desalination at low cost. To meet the challenge, large scale dual purpose power/desalination plants are being built to reduce the cost of production of
electricity and water.
Thermal energy extracted or exhausted from power plants is used effectively in the
desalination process.
We believe we can set the challenge for the power-desalination industry: to reach, in
the foreseeable future a cost of desalinated water from the sea of 50 /m and power
generation at 2 /kWh.
Not only does the large scale technology of power/desalination bring the reduction in
costs of energy and capital but also new forms of financing contributing to a dramatic
reduction in the cost of electricity and water. The concept of an independent power
producer (IPP) is rapidly finding acceptance in the form of Independent Water and
Power Projects (IWPP). To demonstrate the point, examples from some Gulf States
are given hereafter
4.1) Recent Dual Purpose Power and Desalination Projects
The first Independent Water and Power Projects (IWPP) in Abu Dhabi at Al
Taweelah A2 indicates that privatisation of desalination and power production in the
Middle East can bring an economical and competitive solution. The dual-purpose 50
mgd. MSF desalination plant and 710 MW combined cycle power plant awarded to
3

CMS Energy produced water at 70 cents per cubic meter and 2.46 cents per kWh. The
Al-Taweelah A1 Build, Own, Operate (BOO) project in Abu Dhabi which was
awarded recently, to Tractabel & Total involved the acquisition of an existing plant of
255MW, and 29.2 mgd. And, an expansion of 800 MW of power and 40 50 mgd.
of desalination. And for the introduction of Multi-Effect Distillation (MED)
technology
These dynamic changes in large power/desalination plants are being repeated in many
projects in the Middle East. Abu Dhabi received bids for Shuweihat for a plant having
a desalination capacity of 100 million mgd. and 1,500 MW of power. The plant
developed on a BOO basis is due to be fully operational in May 2004. In addition Abu
Dhabi is negotiating turnkey contracts for Mirfa and Umm al- Narr and for other
remote regions to meet water demand in excess of 10 percent per year using MSF,
MED and RO technologies.
Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) awarded in 1999 to Italimpianti of
Italy Station K which involves installation of two 10 mgd. MSF plants. It also
awarded Enel-power of Italy phase 2 of Jebel Ali Station K at a cost of US$586
million for 40 mgd. and 850 MW. The plans for Station L of 50 mgd, are understudy.
The Emirate of Sharjah has awarded the largest commercial MED units of 5 mgd to
SIDEM, Waste heat recovery boilers from gas turbines will provide the source of
energy for this addition.
The Sultanate of Oman, after awarding to National Power of the U.K. the Al-Kamil
BOO power project, announced Barka IWPP for 20 mgd. and 400-450 MW.
4.2) Plant Inventory
According to (IDA), World Wide Inventory Report by 31st December, 2000, a
worldwide total of 13 600 desalting units with total capacity of 26,000 m/d (equal to
6.87 billion gallons per day) have been installed or contracted and are already used in
120 countries around the world.
The Middle East countries, particularly the Gulf Cooperation Council States, are the
biggest users of desalination technology, with 11,991,000 m/d, which is in excess of
50% of the worlds capacity.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ranks first with 23.6%, 2.3% decrease from the last
inventory of the worlds capacity, most of it being made up of seawater multi-stage
flash (MSF) desalination units combined with power generation in dual - purpose
power desalting plants. The worlds largest plant is the Al Jubail Phase II complex
which produces 240 mgd of distilled water and 1300 MW of electric power is
operating successfully since 1982.
Saudi Arabia is followed by the USA, which has 16.7% of world capacity and over
3060, units, consisting of plants using primarily the Reverse Osmosis Process to treat
brackish ground water or river water. The United Arab Emirates with 16.3%,
followed by Kuwait with 6.4%, of worldwide capacity, are good examples of
countries where dual purpose power - desalting is utilized on a major scale. Egypt has
a current installed capacity of all land-based desalting plants of 174,640 m/d built in
230 units which constitutes an increase from 128,972 m/d and 187 units reported last
year..

In terms of desalination processes, 42.87%, of the total installed or contracted

capacity is based on the MSF principle reflecting a continuing decline from the
proportion reached in 1993 (51.5%). In comparison, the Reverse Osmosis Process
increased its share to 38.95% in the same period. For plants rated at more than 4000
m/d (~1mgd) per unit, MSF at 57.5%, is still more prevalent than RO technology
with 27.6%. Although the other water distillation technologies, Multi-Effect (MED)
and Vapor Compression (VCD), are not in great use, in our opinion these will play an
important role in the future.
It is of interest to note that for plants rated at more than 1 mgd per unit, sea water
desalination application leads with 60.6%, against brackish water of 22.8% of all
installed or contracted capacity.
From these figures it is clear that desalination technology is a mature technology, well
established. It provides a reliable service in many parts of the world, at an ever
decreasing cost as the capital costs of these technologies as well as their operation and
maintenance is rapidly falling as a result of better understanding of the technologies
with greater attention to detail and the development of more advanced chemicals.
Although desalinated water while still remaining expensive compared with other
freshwater sources is closing the gap as other water resources are becoming more
expensive due to environmental considerations. I am in no doubt that it will become a
normal source of choice under many circumstances even for agricultural production
when high value products are grown.
5) DESALTING PROCESSES AND FUTURE TRENDS
A desalting device essentially separates saline water into two streams:
One with a low concentration of dissolved salts (the fresh water stream) and the other
containing the remaining dissolved salts (the concentrate or brine stream). The device
requires energy to operate and can use a number of different technologies for the
separation.
5.1) Thermal Processes
In the distillation process water is heated, producing water vapour that is in turn
condensed to from fresh water. In an industrial plant, water is heated to the boiling
point to produce the maximum amount of water vapour.
To do this economically in a desalination plant, the applied pressure of the water
being boiled is adjusted to control the boiling point. This reduction of the boiling
point is important in the desalination process for two major reasons: multiple boiling
and scale control.
To boil, water needs two important conditions: the proper temperature relative to its
ambient pressure and enough energy for vaporisation. When water is heated to its
boiling point and then the heat is turned off, the water will continue to boil only for a
short time because the water needs additional energy (the heat of vaporisation) to
permit boiling. Once the water stops boiling, boiling can be renewed by either adding
more heat or by reducing the ambient pressure above the water. If the ambient
pressure were reduced, the water would be at a temperature above its boiling point,
and would flash to produce steam (vapour), the temperature of the water will fall to
the new boiling point. If more vapour can be produced and then condensed into fresh
water with the same amount of heat, the process tends to be more efficient.

To significantly reduce the amount of energy needed for vaporisation, the distillation
desalting process usually uses multiple boiling in successive vessels, each operating at
a lower temperature and pressure. Typically 8 tons of distillate can be produced from
1 ton of steam.
Aside from multiple boiling, the other important factor is scale control. Although
most substances dissolve more readily in warmer water, some dissolve more readily
in cooler water. Unfortunately, some of these substances, like carbonates and
sulphates, are found in seawater. One of the most important is calcium sulphate
(CaSO3 ). which begins to leave solution when seawater approaches about 115 .
This material forms a hard scale that coats any tubes or surfaces present. Scale
creates thermal and mechanical problems and, once formed, is difficult to remove.
One way to avoid the formation of this scale is to control the concentration level of
seawater and to control the top temperature of the process. Another way is to add
special chemicals to the seawater that reduce scale precipitation which, could permit
a top temperature of up to 120 C.
These two concepts have made various forms of distillation successful in locations
around the world. The process that accounts for the most desalting capacity for
seawater is multi-stage flash distillation, commonly referred to as,
5.1.1) The MSF process.
In this process, a steam of brine flows through the bottom of up to 25 stages
(chambers). The pressure in each stage is maintained at a lower level than the
saturation vapour pressure of the water and a proportion of it flashes into steam,
which is then condensed. The latent heat lost during condensation is used to heat the
next stage of flashing, therefore recovering part of the energy.
Among the advantages of this process is the composition of the feed water has a
negligible effect on the energy consumption per product water delivered and in
common with all distillation processes it produces comparatively pure water.
These plants are fully developed and, have been in, large scale commercial operation,
for many years. The Capital costs vary from $4.00- $12.00/gal/day. Sizes of plant can
vary from 1-15 mgd.
5.1.2) The MED process
In the Multi-effect distillation, the evaporation takes place as a thin film of feed water
passes over a heat transfer surface. This is usually the outside of a horizontal tubes.
The vapour formed in each effect condenses in the next, providing a heat source for
further evaporation. Energy savings are made if the vapour from the last effect is
compressed thermally or mechanically. Fewer stages are involved than MSF.
The MED specific power consumption is below 1.8 KWH/ton of distillate, much
lower than 4KWH/ton for MSF. Another advantage is
The ability to produce higher performance ratios in excess of 15 lbs of product water
for 1lb of steam where the MSF practical limit is 10.
These plants have been much improved recently and, combined with Nano-filtration
process, can significantly reduce costs. Sizes can vary from 0.5-5 mgd. Capital costs
are in the region $3.50-$8.00gal/day

5.1.3) The VCD Process

Vapour Compression Process is similar to MED process. The vapour produced by the
evaporation of the brine is compressed on the steam side of the same evaporator in
which it originated. It condenses on the heat transfer surfaces, giving up its latent heat
to evaporate an additional portion of the brine. The energy of evaporation comes from
the vapour compressor, unlike the preceding methods which derive their heat from
the prime heat source.
This method is simple, reliable and requires electrical power only. It is yet to make its
impact in the market place.
5.2) Membrane Processes
In nature, membranes play an important role in the separation of salts, including both
the process of dialysis and osmosis, which occurs in the body. Membranes are used
in two commercially important desalting processes: electrodialysis (ED) and reverse
osmosis (RO). Each process uses the ability of the membranes to differentiate and
selectively separate salts and water. However, membranes are used differently in
each of these processes.
5.2.1) Reverse Osmosis (RO)
RO is a pressure-driven process, with the pressure used for separation by allowing
fresh water to move through a membrane, leaving the salts behind The process is
using hydraulic pressure as its energy source, operates at ambient temperatures, a
fraction of the water content of seawater or brackish water is driven under pressure
through a semi-permeable membrane, generally of organic materials. As the name
implies, the value of that driving force must exceed the osmotic pressure of the brine,
To provide a more compact installation and to lower equipment costs, designs have
been developed to maximise the membrane surface area contained in a single pressure
vessel. Two designs are currently in use for seawater:
a) Spiral wound
b) Hollow fibre
RO in general requires a thorough pre-treatment to avoid deposits that might decrease
the product flux or, in extreme cases, could completely destroy the membranes.
Feed at pressure of (69 bar) is used for low and medium salinity waters, while feed
pressures up to (83 bars) are used for the high salinity and temperature in the Red Sea
and Arabian Gulf
The conversion ratio can vary depending on salinity of seawater from 35% for high
salinity to 50% at standard seawater salinity.
The seawater RO process normally uses only electrical energy. High- pressure multistage centrifugal pumps (70-85% efficiency) are employed for the large single trains,
which currently reached 2 mgd. Energy recovery systems based on reverse running
pump, impulse turbines, hydraulic turbocharger or similar, are now normally
employed to recover the energy. The capital amortisation (about 35% -45%),
electrical power (30%-50%), membrane replacement, constitutes the major
components of the total water cost. This cost can vary from as low as $0.75$1.20/cu.m. The capital cost of the RO plant could vary from $3.5- $9/gpd.

5.2.2) Electrodialysis
This process depends on the principle that all salts dissolved in water are positively
or negatively charged ions. These ions will migrate towards the electrodes. Individual
membranes, which allow the passage of either cationic or anionic particles, are placed
between a pair of electrodes. A system was developed, by an American company,
using this phenomena, combined with the reversal of the polarity of the electrodes, a
few times per hour. This permits very pure water to be produced. ED units are used to
desalinate brackish water; they have very limited use except in particular industrial
applications.
5.3) Dual purpose Power Desalination systems
The dual purpose power-desalination plants make use of thermal energy extracted or
exhausted from power plants in form of low pressure steam to provide heat input to
thermal desalination plants for multi-stage flash (MSF) or multi-effect (MED)
distillation processes. The electrical energy can also be effectively used in the
electrically driven desalination processes like Reverse Osmosis (RO) and Vapour
Compression Distillation (VCD) processes.
The important issue facing planners, designers and operators of power-desalination
projects is the optimum selection of power and desalting technology in order to
optimise the joint production of water and power by the utility.
There are unique conditions in the Arabian Gulf where peak demand for electricity
rises significantly during the summer mainly because of the use of air-conditioning
and then drops dramatically to 30-40% of summer capacity. This creates a situation
that over 50% of power generation is idle. In contrast, the demand for desalinated
water is almost constant. Water can be stored while electricity storage is not practical.
In this case excess electricity can be diverted to water production, incorporating
electrical driven technology of seawater Reverse Osmosis (RO) and/or Vapour
Compression Distillation (VCD) and combined with low pressure steam driven
technology of MSF or MED, making it advantageous to have integrated hybrid plants.
As a result of annual water demand growing at a greater rate than the demand for
electricity, the design of future plants requires careful consideration of power (MW)
to water (MIGD) ration (PWR).
5.4) Future Trends
The evaporative technologies, by themselves, will probably see only modest
incremental improvements. Ironically, their greatest chance to compete more strongly
with RO may come from advances in membrane technology. Both productivity and
thermal efficiency of an evaporator are limited by the top operating temperature,
which in turn is limited most often by the propensity to form insoluble inorganic
scale. The use of NF membranes to soften partially the seawater feed will permit the
operation of evaporative plants at higher temperatures such that the added cost of NF
pre-treatment is more than justified. Both MSF and ME, may be retrofitted with NF to
provide additional capacity without the expense of adding additional complete plants.
In the case of RO, further improvements in systems design and membrane
performance and lower costs are anticipated as well as an expanded range of options
for energy recovery from the rejected brine. And, as we have seen in the paragraph
above, membrane pre-treatment for RO may very well improve productivity and
reduce operating costs through such hybridisation. Also optimisation continues apace
8

on membrane element and membrane system design. Novel approaches to improving

brine turbulence and distribution within the elements themselves promise to improve
productivity of existing membranes.
In the case of NF(or MS) we are only just starting to appreciate the possibilities.
Much development still needs to be done to optimise these membranes for specific
applications whether they be sea water pre-treatment, brackish water pre-treatment, or
membrane softening for municipal purposes.
Of course, there remains the possibility that new, wholly different processes may be
found as well. At this point however, none can be spotted. But the promise to make
significant improvements in desalination practice based upon continuing
improvements in the processes already known is in itself very encouraging.
6) CONCLUSIONS
Once all other methods of water management, water harvesting, and underground
resources are properly deployed, desalination is the only method of augmenting water
resources, and it is capable of satisfying the demands of coastal communities and
beyond. This is more so as other sources of water become more expensive making
the differential cost difference smaller.

REFERENCES
1) Birkett J.D Introduction to Desalination Technology Singapore March 2001
2) Awerbuch L. Water Security. Singapore Conference March 2001
3) IDA, Wangnick, Desalination Inventory