School of Chemical Engineering and Technology

Tianjin University

Technological Review of Seawater

Desalination
June 18, 2019

Group Members Names:

麦克.........6316000111
皮特……6316000105

克鲁巴…..6316000021

MAJOR: CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

COURSE: Separation Process Engineering
SUBMITTED TO: Hong Wu & Zhongyi Jiang
 Contents

Introduction……………………………………………………………………2

Overview of Desalination Processes………………………………………..…3

 Types of Desalination Technologies

Thermal Technology………………………………………………………..…5
 Multi-Stage Flash Distillation (MSF)
 Multi-Effect Distillation (MED)
 Vapor Compression Distillation
Membrane Desalination ……………………………………………………....9
 Electrodialysis (ED) and Electrodialysis Reversal (EDR)

 Reverse Osmosis (RO) and Nanofiltration (NF)

Other Technology used for seawater Desalination……………………..…….13

 Capacitive Deionization
 Forward Osmosis
 Freezing Processes
 Ion Exchange
Economy Analysis of Seawater Desalination Process………………………..16

Disadvantages of Seawater Desalination……………………………………..18

Conclusion ………………………………………………………………...….21

References ……………………………………………………………………22

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 Introduction
The scarcity of fresh water resources and the need for additional water supplies is already
critical in many arid regions of the world and will be increasingly important in the future. It is
very likely that the water issue will be considered, like fossil energy resources, to be one of the
determining factors of world stability. Thus, it is of utmost importance to fabricate methods to
use sea water as drinking water so as to fulfill the rising demand of water supply. This can be
done by water desalination methods which remove the salt content and other unwanted
compounds from water thus making it suitable for various applications.

Desalination is a unit operation process that removes salt from water. Desalination process can
be used for municipal, industrial or commercial application. With improvements in technology,
desalination processes are becoming cost-competitive with other methods of producing usable
water for our growing needs. This report focuses on the application of thermal, membrane and
other technology for seawater desalination. A desalination process essentially separates saline
water into two parts - one that has a low concentration of salt (treated water or product water),
and the other with a much higher concentration than the original feed water, usually referred
to as brine concentrate or simply as ‘concentrate’.

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Overview of Desalination Processes

Desalination’s attractions are that it can create a new source of freshwater from otherwise
unusable waters, and that this source may be more dependable and drought-proof than
freshwater sources that rely on annual or multi-year precipitation, runoff, and recharge rates.
Another significant application of desalination technologies is for treatment of contaminated
waters or industrial water or municipal wastewater. Some communities and industries use
desalination technologies to produce drinking water that meets local standards, to treat
contaminated water supplies to meet disposal requirements, or to reuse industrial wastewater.
Many of the technologies developed for desalination also can produce high-quality industrial
process water. For many of these applications, there may be few technological substitutes that
are as effective and reliable as desalination technologies.

There are multiple desalination methods. Two common categories of desalination

technologies— thermal (e.g., distillation) and membrane (e.g., reverse osmosis)—are the most
common, with reverse osmosis technologies dominating in many parts of the world.

Different challenges are encounter when working to achieve greater efficiencies and higher
water quality targets. Some of these are driven by regulatory requirements and some by end
use process needs, such as wastewater reuse. As always, efficiency and economics are
important drivers.
Treatment applications include the need to meet pretreatment and environmental discharge
requirements mostly driven by local government Clean Water Act, National Pollutant
Discharge Elimination System discharge and effluent guidelines. Additional motivations
include water recovery for producing internal process water to meet quality requirements that
are often more stringent than drinking water standards, food and beverage process applications
for product and non-product uses, and ultimately producing drinking water as that becomes
more widely acceptable.
One process growing in use is desalination. The term desalination specifically refers to
desalting, but the same technologies also remove most organic chemicals and most microbial
contaminants, whether during the desalination process or in other applications. Membrane
processes are experiencing expanded applications and research is continually developing
improved membranes with better efficiencies, lower operating pressures and greater resistance
to damage. Thermal and membrane processes produce aggressive water that must be stabilized

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often by the addition of limestone or calcium carbonate to prevent excessive corrosion of pipes,
valves and other contact surfaces.
The International Desalination Association reports that as of mid-2015, there were at least
18,426 desalination plants in 150 countries with total daily production capacity of 86.8 million
cubic meters of water. That is equivalent to 22.9 billion U.S. gallons per day. Water and
wastewater treatment is a profound technical challenge because of the diversity and variability
of processing wastes and the multiple water quality goals geared to the end uses of the treated
water. It can encompass chemical, physical and biological processes and requires good
chemical and microbiological control, good engineering design and careful management to
assure reliability and continued successful operation.
The arsenal of available technologies is large and growing as scientists and engineers create
processes to solve new and existing treatment. Source waters range from sea water to brackish
ground waters, process wastes and brines, domestic wastewaters with high total dissolved
solids, and the on-site treatment of water used in hydraulic fracturing and produced water, to
wastewater recycling for direct or indirect potable reuse. The composition of an industrial
wastewater will significantly affect whether membranes can be used.
The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that saline groundwater represents about 1 percent of
the total world water volume, and the available freshwater is only about 0.76 percent. Desalting
brackish groundwater represents a virtually untapped opportunity to increase freshwater
availability. The cost of desalting brackish water is considerably less than desalting seawater
because the salts concentration is much less and lower pressures may be used. Both
multimillion gallon-per-day and home-sized desalination processes are in use. Volumes have
been written on desalination technologies and the details of applicability, design and operation,
so this will be a conceptual overview.
Salty source water considerations include:
 Total dissolved solids range from about 1,000 to 3,000 milligrams per liter (mg/l) in
some brackish ground waters, to about 35,000 mg/l in open ocean seawater, to 45,000
mg/l in the Arabian Gulf.
 Ionic content broadly includes sodium, calcium, and magnesium cations; chloride,
bromide, sulfate and carbonate anions; and other ions.
 Lower and higher molecular weight natural and synthetic types of total organic carbon
may be present.
 Microbes and other organisms may be included.

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 Types of Desalination Technologies
Depending upon the type or form of energy used, Desalination Processes can be broadly
classified into two groups:

1. Thermal Desalination
2. Membrane Desalination

Seawater /
Brackish water

Energy: Separation Process

Product
Thermal Thermal Fresh Water
Electrical Membrane <500 ppm
Mechanical

Reject Brine or
concentrate

Fig. 1 Concept map of seawater desalination process

Thermal Technology
Thermal technologies, as the name implies, involve the heating of saline water and collecting
the condensed vapor (distillate) to produce pure water. Thermal technologies have rarely been
used for brackish water desalination, because of the high costs involved.
The thermal processes are multistep distillation methods that range from simple, small-scale
distillation to commercial sea water desalination. Thermal seawater desalination has been
practiced on a large scale for more than 60 years initially in the Middle East, where it is still
the dominant desalting technology. Although its energy consumption and costs are generally
higher than membrane processes, it currently provides most of the processed drinking,
irrigation and process water in those countries. Principal thermal processes include:
 Multiple flash distillation (MSF)
 Multi-effect distillation (MED)
 Vapor compression distillation (VCD)

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 Multi-Stage Flash Distillation (MSF)
This process involves the use of distillation through several (multi-stage) chambers. In the MSF
process, each successive stage of the plant operates at progressively lower pressures. The feed
water is first heated under high pressure, and is led into the first ‘flash chamber’, where the
pressure is released, causing the water to boil rapidly resulting in sudden evaporation or
‘flashing’. This ‘flashing’ of a portion of the feed continues in each successive stage, because
the pressure at each stage is lower than in the previous stage. The vapor generated by the
flashing is converted into fresh water by being condensed on heat exchanger tubing that run
through each stage. The tubes are cooled by the incoming cooler feed water. Generally, only a
small percentage of the feed water is converted into vapor and condensed.
Multi-stage flash distillation plants have been built since the late 1950s. Some MSF plants can
contain from 15 to 25 stages, but are usually no larger than 15 mgd in capacity. MSF distillation
plants can have either a ‘once-through’ or ‘recycled’ process. In the ‘once-through’ design, the
feed water is passed through the heater and flash chambers just once and disposed of, while in
the recycled design, the feed water for cooling is recycled. Each of these processes can be
structured as a ‘long tube’ or ‘cross tube’ design. In the long tube design (built at Freeport in
1961), tubing is parallel to the concentrate flow, while in the cross tube design, tubing is
perpendicular to the concentrate flow.
MSF plants are subject to corrosion unless stainless steel is used extensively. In addition to
corrosion, MSF plants are also subject to erosion and impingement attack. Erosion is caused
by the turbulence of the feed water in the flash chamber, when the feed water passes from one
stage to another. Distillation processes produce about 3.4 billion gpd globally, which is about
50 percent of the worldwide desalination capacity. MSF plants provide about 84 percent of that
capacity.

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 Fig. 2 Multi stage flash distillation

Multi-Effect Distillation (MED)

The MED process has been used since the late 1950s and early 1960s. Multi-effect distillation
occurs in a series of vessels (effects) and uses the principles of evaporation and condensation
at reduced ambient pressure. In MED, a series of evaporator effects produce water at
progressively lower pressures. Water boils at lower temperatures as pressure decreases, so the
water vapor of the first vessel or effect serves as the heating medium for the second, and so on.
The more vessels or effects there are, the higher the performance ratio. Depending upon the
arrangement of the heat exchanger tubing, MED units could be classified as horizontal tube,
vertical tube or vertically stacked tube bundles
There have been several MED plants built around the world. Steam from the power plant is
directed to the evaporators in the desalination units. Product water is obtained as condensate of
the vapor from each vessel. Several MED plants are found overseas.

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 Fig. 3 multi-effect distillation
Vapor Compression Distillation
The vapor compression distillation (VCD) process is used either in combination with other
processes such as the MED, or by itself. The heat for evaporating the water comes from the
compression of vapor, rather than the direct exchange of heat from steam produced in a boiler
(Buros, 2000). Vapor compression (VC) units have been built in a variety of configurations.
Usually, a mechanical compressor is used to generate the heat for evaporation. The VC units
are generally small in capacity, and are often used at hotels, resorts and in industrial
applications.

Fig. 4 Vapor Compression Distillation process

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Membrane Desalination
Membrane processes involve the passage of water through a semipermeable membrane under
pressure. The pressurization reverses the spontaneous transport of water that would occur from
the dilute to the more concentrated side to equalize the free energy of the fluids. Several types
of membranes are used in wastewater treatment, e.g., membrane bioreactors, but desalination
processes require reverse osmosis (RO) membranes; nanofiltration can have some applications.

The pore sizes of the membranes range from 0.1 to 1 micrometer (µm) for microfiltration (MF),
0.001 to 0.1 µm for ultrafiltration (UF), +/- 0.001 µm for nanofiltration (NF), and 0.0001 to
0.001 µm for RO. Membranes are also used in electrodialysis processes.
The membranes were originally cellulose acetate, but now are usually layered polyamides and
polysulfones with a porous support material. Ceramic membranes are also becoming available
that can provide greater ruggedness and resistance to substances that can damage polymers.

Membrane desalination is classified depending on the driving force.

1. Electrodialysis/Electrodialysis Reversal (ED/EDR)
2. Reverse Osmosis (RO).
3. Microfiltration
4. Ultrafiltration
5. Nanofiltration

Table 1 classification of membrane desalination depending on the driving force

Process Size of Material Retained
Microfiltration 0.1-10.0 microns
molecules
Ultrafiltration 5-100 nm molecules
Nanofiltration 0.5 - 5 nm molecules
(mostly charged
species)
Reverse Osmosis < 1 nm molecules
Driving Force
Pressure difference
Pressure difference (1
- 4 bar)
Pressure difference (5
- 15 bar)
Pressure difference (10
- 60 bar)

Electrodialysis (ED) and Electrodialysis Reversal (EDR)

Electrodialysis (ED) is a voltage-driven membrane process. An electrical potential is used to
move salts through a membrane, leaving fresh water behind as product water. ED was
commercially introduced in the 1960s, about 10 years before reverse osmosis (RO), Although

9
ED was originally conceived as a seawater desalination process, it has generally been used for
brackish water desalination.
ED depends on the following general principles:

 Most salts dissolved in water are ions, either positively charged (cations), or negatively
charged (anions).
 Since like poles repel each other and unlike poles attract, the ions migrate toward the
electrodes with an opposite electric charge
 Suitable membranes can be constructed to permit selective passage of either anions or
cations.

In a saline solution, dissolved ions such as sodium (+) and chloride (-) migrate to the opposite
electrodes passing through selected membranes that either allow cations or anions to pass
through (not both). Membranes are usually arranged in an alternate pattern, with anion-
selective membrane followed by a cation-selective membrane. During this process, the salt
content of the water channel is diluted, while concentrated solutions are formed at the
electrodes. Concentrated and diluted solutions are created in the spaces between the alternating
membranes, and these spaces bound by two membranes are called cells. ED units consist of
several hundred cells bound together with electrodes, and is referred to as a stack. Feed water
passes through all the cells simultaneously to provide a continuous flow of desalinated water
and a steady stream of concentrate (brine) from the stack.
In the early 1970s, the Electrodialysis Reversal (EDR) process was introduced. An EDR unit
operates on the same general principle as an ED unit, except that both the product and
concentrate channels are identical in construction. At intervals of several times an hour, the
polarity of the electrodes is reversed, causing ions to be attracted in the opposite direction
across the membranes. Immediately following reversal, the product water is removed until the
lines are flushed out and desired water quality restored. The flush takes just a few minutes
before resuming water production. The reversal process is useful in breaking up and flushing
out scales, slimes, and other deposits in the cells before they build up. Flushing helps in
reducing the problem of membrane fouling.
Because of the inherent characteristics of the electrical process used in ED units, they are
normally used to desalinate brackish water, rather than high salinity water such as seawater.
The few ED units that are located in Texas are those that are used in low-salinity applications
such as surface water desalination (e.g. Lake Granbury and Sherman).

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 Fig. 5 ED and EDR Process

Reverse Osmosis (RO) and Nanofiltration (NF)

In relation to thermal processes, Reverse Osmosis (RO) is a relatively new process that was
commercialized in the 1970s (Buros, 2000). Currently, RO is the most widely used method for
desalination in the United States. The RO process uses pressure as the driving force to push
saline water through a semi-permeable membrane into a product water stream and a
concentrated brine stream. Nanofiltration (NF) is also a membrane process that is used for
removal of divalent salt ions such as Calcium, Magnesium, and Sulphate. RO, on the other
hand, is used for removal of Sodium and Chloride. RO processes are used for desalinating
brackish water (TDS>1,500 mg/l), and seawater. The process is explained below:

Osmosis is a natural phenomenon by which water from a low salt concentration passes into a
more concentrated solution through a semi-permeable membrane. When pressure is applied to
the solution with the higher salt concentration solution, the water will flow in a reverse direction
through the semi-permeable membrane, leaving the salt behind. This is known as the Reverse
Osmosis process or RO process.

An RO desalination plant essentially consists of four major systems:

a) Pretreatment system
b) High-pressure pumps
c) Membrane systems
d) Post-treatment

Pre-treatment is very important in RO because the membrane surfaces must remain clean.
Therefore, all suspended solids must be first removed, and the water pre-treated so that salt
precipitation or microbial growth does not occur on the membranes. Pre-treatment may
involve conventional methods such as a chemical feed followed by
coagulation/flocculation/sedimentation, and sand filtration, or pre-treatment may involve

11
membrane processes such as microfiltration (MF) and ultrafiltration (UF). The choice of a
particular pre-treatment process is based on a number of factors such as feed water quality
characteristics, space availability, RO membrane requirements, etc.

High pressure pumps supply the pressure needed to enable the water to pass through the
membrane and have the salt rejected. The pressures range from about 150 psi for slightly
brackish water to 800 - 1,000 psi for seawater.

Fig. 6 Water treatment plant using RO for seawater for desalination

The membrane assembly consists of a pressure vessel and a semi-permeable membrane inside
that permits the feed water to pass through it. RO membranes for desalination generally come
in two types: Spiral wound and Hollow fiber. Spiral wound elements are actually constructed
from flat sheet membranes. Membrane materials may be made of cellulose acetate or of other
composite polymers. In the spiral wound design, the membrane envelope is wrapped around a
central collecting tube. The feed water under pressure, flows in a spiral path within the
membrane envelope, and pure (desalinated) water is collected in the central tube. As a portion
of the water passes through the membrane, the remaining feed water increases in salt content.
A portion of the feed water is discharged without passing through the membrane. Without this
discharge, the pressurized feed water would continue to increase in salinity content, causing
super-saturation of salts. The amount of feed water that is discharged as concentrate, ranges
from about 20 percent for brackish water to about 50 percent for seawater.

Another type of membrane is the hollow fiber design which places a large number of hollow
fiber membranes in a pressure vessel. The pressurized saline water is introduced into the vessel

12
along the outside of the hollow fibers. Under pressure, desalinated water passes through the
fiber walls, and flows in the hollow fibers for collection. This type of design is not as widely
used now as the spiral wound membranes for desalination.
Post-Treatment consists of stabilizing the water and preparing it for distribution. The post-
treatment might consist of adjusting the pH and disinfection. If the desalinated water is being
combined with other sources of water supply, it is very important to ensure similar water
quality characteristics in both water sources.
Two developments have helped to reduce the operating cost of RO plants during the past
decade: the development of more efficient membranes and the use of energy recovery devices.
The newer membranes have higher flux (rate of water flow per unit area), improved rejection
of salts, lower prices and longer service life.
It is now common to use energy recovery devices connected to the concentrate stream as it
leaves the pressure vessel at about 20-50 psi less than the applied pressure from the high-
pressure pump. The energy recovery devices are mechanical and consist of turbines, pressure
exchangers or other devices that rotate and produce energy, thus assisting the RO process in
reducing the overall energy needs. The energy recovered can be as high as 25-35 percent of the
input energy for seawater.

Other Technology used for seawater Desalination

There are a number of methods for removing salts from seawater or brackish groundwater to
provide water for municipal and agricultural purposes. This section gives an overview of
some of the technologies used for seawater desalination.

Capacitive Deionization

Capacitive deionization desalinates saline waters by absorbing salts out of the water using
electrically charged porous electrodes. The technology uses the fact that salts are ionic
compounds with opposite charges to separate the salts from the water. The limiting factor for
this technology is often the salt absorption capacity of the electrodes. Flow-through capacitive
deionization shows promise for energy-efficient desalination of brackish waters.

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 Fig. 7 Capacity deionization seawater desalination process. (Retrieved from Wikipedia)

Forward Osmosis
Forward osmosis is an increasingly used but relatively new membrane-based separation
process that uses an osmotic pressure difference between a concentrated “draw” solution and
the saline source water; the osmotic pressure drives the water to be treated across a semi-
permeable membrane into the draw solution. The level of salt removal can be competitive with
reverse osmosis, and forward osmosis membranes may be more resistant to fouling than
reverse osmosis membranes.
A main challenge is the selection of a draw solute; the solute needs to either be desirable or
benign in the water supply, or be easily and economically separated out. Research is being
conducted on whether a combination of ammonia and carbon dioxide gases or polymers can
be used in the draw solution, and on the effects of marine biology on the membranes. The
attractiveness of forward osmosis is that when combined with industrial or power production
processes that produce waste heat, its electricity requirements can be significantly less than
for reverse osmosis. Potential disadvantages of forward osmosis are a lower quantity of
freshwater per unit of water treated and a larger quantity of brine requiring disposal.

Fig. 8 Forward Osmosis Process diagram ( Retrieved from www.engineering.com )

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 Freezing Processes
Freezing processes involve three basic steps: (1) partial freezing of the feed water in which
ice crystals of fresh water form an ice-brine slurry; (2) separating the ice crystals from the
brine; and (3) melting the ice. Freezing has some inherent advantages over distillation in that
less energy is required and there is a minimum of corrosion and scale formation problems
because of the low temperatures involved. Freezing processes have the potential to
concentrate waste streams to higher concentration than other processes, and the energy
requirements are comparable to reverse osmosis. While the feasibility of freeze desalination
has been demonstrated, further research and development remains before the technology will
be widely available.

Fig. 9 Freeze crystallization process, pre-cooler to remove the heat, crystallizer to obtain and
separate ice crystal, melting to obtain desalinated water (Retrieved from http://iasks.org/wp-
content/uploads/pdf/IJTEE-1502004.pdf )

Ion Exchange
In ion exchange, resins substitute hydrogen and hydroxide ions for salt ions. For example,
cation exchange resins are commonly used in home water softeners to remove calcium and
magnesium from “hard” water. A number of municipalities use ion exchange for water
softening, and industries requiring extremely pure water commonly use ion exchange resins
as a final treatment following reverse osmosis or electrodialysis. The primary cost associated
with ion exchange is in regenerating or replacing the resins. The higher the concentration of
dissolved salts in the water, the more often the resins need to be renewed. In general, ion
exchange is rarely used for salt removal on a large scale.

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 Fig. 10 Ion Exchange membrane salt water desalination process (Retrieved from
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0375/7/3/54/htm )

Economy Analysis of Seawater Desalination Process

The cost of desalination for municipal water remains a barrier to adoption. Like nearly all new
freshwater sources, desalinated water comes at substantially higher costs than existing
municipal water sources. Much of the cost for seawater desalination is for the energy required
for operations; in particular, the competitiveness of reverse osmosis seawater desalination is
highly dependent on the price of electricity. Reverse osmosis pushes water through a membrane
to separate the freshwater from the salts; this requires considerable energy input. Currently the
typical energy intensity for seawater desalination using reverse osmosis with energy recovery
devices is 3-7 kilowatt-hours of electricity per cubic meter of water (kWh/m3). The typical
energy intensity of brackish reverse osmosis desalination is less than seawater desalination, at
0.5-3 kWh/m3, because the energy required for desalination is a function of the salinity of the
source water.
Uncertainty in whether electricity prices will rise or fall creates significant uncertainty in the
cost of desalinated water. If electricity becomes more expensive, less electricity-intensive water
supply options (which may include conservation, water purchases, and changes in water
pricing) become comparatively more attractive.

16
Cost-effectively reducing desalination’s energy requirements could help reduce overall costs.
In recent decades, one of the ways that desalination cost reductions were achieved was through
reduced energy requirements of reverse osmosis processes. Now the energy used in the reverse
osmosis portion of new desalination facilities is close to the theoretical minimum energy
required for separation of the salts from the water. Therefore, although there still is some room
for energy efficiency improvements in using desalination as a water supply, dramatic
improvements are not likely to be achieved through enhancements to standard reverse osmosis
membranes. Instead energy efficiency improvements are more likely to come from other
components of desalination facilities, such as the pretreatment of the water before it enters the
reverse osmosis process, enhanced facility and system design, or the use and development of a
new generation of technologies.

For example, energy efficiency advances in the non-membrane portions of water systems and
the use of energy recovery technologies are reducing energy use per unit of freshwater
produced at desalination facilities. Pumps are responsible for more than 40% of total energy
costs at a desalination facility. Energy efficiency advances in a type of pump that is useful for
smaller applications (called a positive displacement pump) have made desalination more cost-
effective for some applications and locations and less sensitive to electricity price increases.

The extent to which desalination technologies can be coupled with intermittent renewable or
geothermal electric generation,31 use off-peak electricity or waste heat, and operate in areas of
limited electric generation or transmission capacity but with renewable energy resources is
increasingly receiving attention. Desalinating more water when wind energy is available
(which requires facilities that can operate with a variable water inflow) and storing the treated
water for when water is demanded can almost be viewed as a means of electricity storage and
reduction of peak demand. Based on research, it has been proven that the Improvements in
membrane technology have reduced costs, and membrane technology is less energy-intense
than thermal desalination (although it is more energy-intense than most other water supply
options).

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Disadvantages of Seawater Desalination
According to Newton’s third law, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”
The statement means that in everything that is done, there is an opposite action that is often
consider as disadvantage. Seawater desalination is an innovative process that uses thermal or
membrane technologies to remove salt from sea water that can be used by municipal inhabitants
for agricultural purposes or domestic purposes. However, it has its own disadvantages
associated with it. If only humans could drink seawater without dying, we wouldn’t find
ourselves floundering in a water crisis. To not die, first you have to boil saltwater and collect
the pure vapor, or get yourself a fancy membrane that filters out all the salt and, conveniently,
sea life. This is the controversial idea behind large-scale desalination—great big expensive
facilities that turn saltwater into a liquid that won’t kill you. The classic criticism of desal is
that it takes a tremendous amount of energy to process seawater, and we really shouldn’t be
burning any more fossil fuels than we need to be. But a less chattered-about problem is the
effect on the local environment: The primary byproduct of desal is brine, which facilities pump
back out to sea. The stuff sinks to the seafloor and wreaks havoc on ecosystems, cratering
oxygen levels and spiking salt content.

Unfortunately, scientists haven’t had a good idea of just how much brine the 16,000 operating

desal facilities worldwide have been producing. Until now. Researchers report today that global

desal brine production is 50 percent higher than previous estimates, totaling 141.5 million cubic

meters a day, compared to 95 million cubic meters of actual freshwater output from the

facilities. Bad news for the environment, to be sure, but things aren’t altogether dire: Desal tech

is rapidly evolving, so plants are getting far more efficient, both in the brine they produce and

the energy they use. Desalination facilities typically fall into one of two categories: thermal

and membrane. With thermal, you suck in seawater, heat it up to get the pure vapor, and pump

the remaining brine back out to sea. With membranes, you push seawater at great

pressures through a series of filters, which pull out all the salt and other contaminants.

Thermal is the more old-school method—prior to the 1980s, 84 percent of desalinated water

went through this process. Since the beginning of the new millennium, though, a particular

kind of membrane technology, reverse osmosis (we’ll call it RO for short), has proliferated

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exponentially. RO facilities now produce 69 percent of desalinated water worldwide. Why?

Because RO is cheaper and more efficient. Advances in membrane technology mean facilities

require less and less pressure, and therefore energy, to filter seawater. As an added benefit, RO

produces less brine. With thermal, 75 percent of the water you bring in might leave as brine.

With RO, it’s more 50-50 freshwater to wastewater.

Fig. 11 World Seawater Desalination plant capacity outlook (Retrieved from

https://www.wired.com/story/desalination-is-booming-but-what-about-all-that-toxic-brine/ )

This is an important consideration because not all desal facilities are processing seawater. In
fact, if you take a look at the map above, you’ll see a great number of them are inland. These
are processing brackish water from aquifers or rivers for drinking, or for use in industry and
agriculture. They’re by nature more efficient than coastal plants that process seawater.

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 Fig 12. World seawater Desalination plants, capacity outlook for 1960 – 2020 ( Retrieved
from https://www.wired.com/story/desalination-is-booming-but-what-about-all-that-toxic-
brine/ )

The boom in desal brings with it a tidal wave of brine. Because this stuff is denser than typical
seawater, it sinks to the seafloor and disrupts vibrant communities of life, which find
themselves wanting far less salt and far more oxygen.

These problems can be mitigated by:

 Mixing the brine with seawater before pumping it out, to dilute it. They might also take
care to expel the byproduct where currents are strongest, thus dissipating the brine
quicker.
 Inland, a plant might evaporate the water in pools and cart away the remaining salt.
But brine is more than just hypersaline water—it can be loaded with heavy metals and
chemicals that keep the feed water from gunking up the complicated and expensive
facility. “The antifoulants used in the process, particularly in the pretreatment process
of the source water, accumulate and discharge to the environment in concentrations that
can potentially have damaging effects on the ecosystems. The discharge can also
contain precious elements like uranium. This might be enough incentive to turn desal
brine from a noxious byproduct into a source of revenue.
 Evaporative pools inland to produce commercial road salt for deicing roads.

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Conclusion
Seawater Desalination is an innovative process that uses thermal and membrane technologies
for the removal of salt from seawater. There are other technologies that can be used for sea
water desalination; freezing processes, ion exchange, forward osmosis and capacitive
deionization. Thermal Technologies are the traditional methods used for this process but in
recent years, reverse osmoses have been widely used because of its low operating cost and the
low risk of environmental impact. The RO has been proven to be the less expensive seawater
desalination technology in the 21 century.

Because of the high level of usage of seawater desalination process, many researches have been
done to determine the disadvantages that are associated with it. Some studies have shown that
the desal brine generated during the operation of seawater desalination systems can cause
serious damaging effects on the natural ecosystem because it is denser than typical seawater, it
sinks to the seafloor and disrupts vibrant communities of marine species which find themselves
wanting far less salt and more oxygen. These challenges can be address by mixing the brine
with seawater before pumping it out, evaporate the water pools and cart away for remaining
salt and evaporate pools inland to produces commercial road salt for deicing roads.

Generally, seawater desalination is one of the potential solutions to address global world crisis
so it is advisable for coastal countries across the globe to implement such technology.

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