Desalination

Process of removing salt and/or other minerals from water for:

Human use (if nearly all salt removed) Irrigation Animal use

Salt water
Fresh water Brackish water Saline water Brine <0.5 ppt (0.5 grams/L) 0.5 30 ppt 30 50 ppt > 50 ppt

Desalination
0.01% of the earths water is renewable and available for safe drinking water Worldwide health costs related to the consumption of unsafe drinking water is estimated to be US$300 billion per year Since 1955 population growth, pollution, and climate shifts have reduced the amount of available fresh water per person by more than 50%. Current worldwide desalination capacity is 31 million cubic meters per day
Projected to grow to 62 million by 2015 Cost of this increased capacity is estimated to be US$95 billion.

There are currently about 13,600 land-based plants, capable of a daily production of 100 cubic meters or more fresh water.
50% Middle East 20% Americas 13% Europe 12% Asia

Types of desalination
Distillation
Multi-stage flash Multiple effect distillation

Membrane processes
Reverse osmosis Forward osmosis

Solar Humidification (Solar still) Methane Hydrate Crystallization

Distillation
Method of separating chemical substances based on differences in their volatilities
Measure of the speed with which a chemical compound evaporates

Flash evaporation (or partial evaporation) is the partial vaporization that occurs when a saturated liquid stream undergoes a reduction in pressure by passing through a throttling valve or other throttling device. This process is one of the simplest unit operations.

Multi-Stage Flash Distillation

A portion of the water is flashed into steam in multiple stages

Melittah MSF Desalination Plant Libya

15,840 m3/day

Environment and Social

Transporting desalinated water Water intakes (sea life) Disposing of brine environmental effects of returning to oceans Water supply reliability Water quality Health concerns http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8IMgsHGAK o

Economics
Co-location Cogeneration Improved technology Decreasing capital and operational costs Energy price variability

Typical costs for a very large seawater thermal desalination plant