A history of the federal involvement in water desalination and related water improvement research and development

Assessment of large scale brackish water desalination plants in the Gaza Strip

Desalination has been growing rapidly as an industry and as a field of research that combines engineering and science to develop innovative and economical means for water desalting. Many countries in the world, especially in the Middle East, depend heavily on seawater desalination as a major source of drinking water and have invested considerable efforts and financial resources in desalination research and training. Desalination plants have seen considerable expansion during the past decade as the need for potable water increases with population growth. It is estimated that the world production of desalination water exceeds 30 million cubic meters per day and the desalination market worldwide is expected to reach $ 30 billion by 2015. One of the major economical and environmental challenges to the desalination industry, especially in those countries that depend on desalination for potable water, is the handling of reject brine, which is the highly concentrated waste by-product of the desalination process. It is estimated that for every 1 m3 of desalinated water, an equivalent amount is generated as reject brine. The common practice in dealing with these huge amounts of brine is to discharge it back into the sea, where it could result, in the long run, in detrimental effects on the aquatic life as well as the quality of the seawater available for desalination in the area. Although technological advances have resulted in the development of new and highly efficient desalination processes, little improvements have been reported in the management and handling of the major by-product waste of most desalination plants, namely reject brine. The disposal or management of desalination brine (concentrate) represents major environmental challenges to most plants, and it is becoming more costly. In spite of the scale of this economical and environmental problem, the options for brine management for inland plants have been rather limited. These options include: discharge to surface water or wastewater treatment plants; deep well injection; land disposal; evaporation ponds; and mechanical/thermal evaporation. Reject brine contains variable concentrations of different chemicals such as anti-scale additives and inorganic salts that could have negative impacts on soil and groundwater. This chapter highlights the main concerns as well as the environmental and economical challenges associated with the generation of large amounts of reject brine as a by-product of the desalination process. The chapter also outlines and compares the most common options for the treatment or disposal of reject brine. The chapter focuses on a novel approach to the management of reject brine that involves chemical reactions with carbon dioxide in the

Water, food, energy, and quality of life go hand in hand. The food we eat, the house we live in, the transports we use, and the things we cannot do without 24/7/365 determine our quality of life and require sustainable and steady supplies of water, food, and energy. Exponential growth in population and the fundamental right to have basic food and standards of living require increasing amounts of water and energy. The quantity of available freshwater and energy sources that directly affect the cost of production (irrigation and energy) and the transportation (energy) of food are diminishing. In addition, there is increased water pollution due to industrial uses of water. The direct use of such water for human consumption as well as irrigation for food production is prohibitive and requires technological solutions. Securing sustainable water, food, and energy supplies are more important challenges today for scientists and engineers than ever before. With the above in mind, Professors Mujtaba and Elbashir organized workshops in Qatar and in India in 2015. The Qatar workshop was on energy and water security and was coordinated by Professors Mujtaba and Elbashir and funded by the British Council (UK) and Texas A&M University (USA). Thirteen participants from the UK and 15 from Qatar (academics and industrialists) presented stimulating and state-of-the-art research and knowledge transfer ideas in energy and water over 3 days. The Indian workshop was on water, food, and energy nexus and was coordinated by professors Mujtaba and Srinivasan and funded by the Royal Society (UK) and the Department of Science and Technology (India). Three participants from the UK and 15 from India (academics and industrialists) presented stimulating and state-of-the-art research and knowledge transfer ideas in water, food, and energy over 3 days. A total of 40 presentations were made and both events received a great deal of national press coverage. The developments in energy-efficient water production, management, wastewater treatment, and energy-efficient processes for food and essential commodities were widely discussed at these workshops. This book presents those technical discussions for wider public benefit around the globe. The book has 37 contributions (most from the two workshops mentioned earlier) and is divided into four sections: • Section I: Water • Section II: Food • Section III: Energy • Section IV: Sustainable Future Section I includes 10 contributions on water desalination, water management, and wastewater treatment. Water desalination covers the state of the art in mode-based research in desalination together with the global water–energy challenge in desalination and forward osmosis-based desalination for agricultural irrigation. Water management covers topics on sustainable water management in industrial cities, water network synthesis, and water quality monitoring. Wastewater treatment includes four contributions on the removal of endocrine, water conservation, life cycle assessment into the synthesis of wastewater treatment plants, and appropriate technologies for supplying safe drinking water. Section II includes five contributions on food. The contributions cover advances in cereal processing, clean technology for sustainable food security, bioenergy in food production, water and energy consumption in food processing, and a mathematical model for food cooking undergoing phase changes. Section III includes 16 contributions on fossil fuel, biofuel, synthetic fuel, and renewable energy, and carbon capture. Fossil fuel includes two contributions on energy-efficient crude oil transport and the process industry economics of crude oil and petroleum derivatives. Biofuel has two contributions: biodiesel production from renewable sources and synthesis of biodiesel from used cooking oil. Synthetic fuel and renewable energy includes five contributions on gas-to-liquid (GTL)-derived synthetic fuel, the role of alternative aviation fuel, a modeling approach for the GTL Fischer–Tropsch reactor and carbon footprint, a distributed renewable energy system and management, and demand for and generation of a smart grid. Carbon capture contains seven contributions on the rotating packed bed for carbon capture, integration of natural gas combined cycle power generation and chemical absorption based carbon capture, postcombustion carbon capture, integration of supercritical coal-fired power plant and carbon capture, experimental and theoretical modeling of carbon capture and sequestration chain, and the performance of organic polymers for carbon capture. Section IV includes six contributions on a sustainable future. The topics cover the role of molecular thermodynamics in developing processes and products for a sustainable future, green engineering in process systems, the fundamental aspect of petrochemical water splitting, petrochemical approaches to solar hydrogen generation, a design and operation strategy of energy-efficient process, and the sustainability of process, supply chain, and enterprise.

Chapter 1 - Desalination Research and Water Resources

The National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI) is a research consortium formed to accelerate transformative research in desalination and treatment to lower the cost and energy required to produce clean water from nontraditional water sources and realize a circular water economy. NAWI's goal is to enable the manufacturing of energy-efficient desalination technologies in the United States at a lower cost with the same (or higher) quality and reduced environmental impact for 90percent of nontraditional water sources within the next 10 years. The nontraditional source waters of interest include brackish water; seawater; produced and extracted water; power, mining, industrial, municipal, and agricultural waste waters. When these desalination and treatment technologies are fully developed and utilized, they will be able to contribute to the water needs for many existing end-use sectors. NAWI has identified five end-use sectors that are critical to the U.S. economy for further exploration: Power, Resource Extraction, Industry, Municipal, and Agriculture (PRIMA). This Agriculture Sector roadmap aims to advance desalination and treatment of nontraditional source waters for beneficial use in public water supplies by identifying research and development (R&D) opportunities that help overcome existing treatment challenges. Under NAWI's vision, the transition from a linear to a circular water economy with nontraditional source waters will be achieved by advancing desalination and reuse technologies in six key areas: Autonomous operations, Precision separations, Resilient treatment and transport, Intensified brine management, Modular membrane systems, and Electrified treatment systems, collectively known as the A-PRIME areas. Technological advances in these different areas will enable nontraditional source waters to achieve pipe parity with traditional supplies.

Membrane distillation (MD) is a rapidly developing field of research and finds applications in desalination of water, purification from nonvolatile substances, and concentration of various solutions. This review presents data from recent studies on the MD process, MD configuration, the type of membranes and membrane hydrophobization. Particular importance has been placed on the methods of hydrophobization and the use of track-etched membranes (TeMs) in the MD process. Hydrophobic TeMs based on poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET), poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) and polycarbonate (PC) have been applied in the purification of water from salts and pesticides, as well as in the concentration of low-level liquid radioactive waste (LLLRW). Such membranes are characterized by a narrow pore size distribution, precise values of the number of pores per unit area and narrow thickness. These properties of membranes allow them to be used for more accurate water purification and as model membranes used to test theoretical models (for instance LEP prediction).

The National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI) is a research consortium formed to accelerate transformative research in desalination and treatment to lower the cost and energy required to produce clean water from nontraditional water sources and realize a circular water economy. Prior to developing this master roadmap, a team of NAWI researchers and water professionals engaged in a detailed process of evaluating water uses, state-of-the-art technologies, emerging technologies and existing uses of desalination and advanced water technologies within five major water user categories in the United States. The resulting Water User Sector Roadmaps were complemented by a Baseline Analysis of a suite of representative treatment systems conducted by NAWI researchers working in collaboration with the hub’s Industrial Partners. This Master Roadmap, which synthesizes the findings from these different efforts as well as feedback from members of NAWI’s Research Advisory Council, serves as the basis for identifying NAWI’s research Areas of Interest (AOIs).

The primary objective of desalination research is the development of a way to produce fresh water at lower cost. The present study investigated two freshwater production methods of Reverse Osmosis (RO) and Multi-Effect Humidification (MEH) (artificial distillation), and analyzed them from an economic standpoint, and subsequently pointed out the important and effective factors in decreasing saltwater desalination expenditure for each one of the mentioned units. Different aspects of these units were investigated as well. However, all the prices are assumed with the current condition and expenses in Sistan Baluchestan province, Iran. The results from economic analyses, obtained employing COMFAR III, showed that, in regions where locals have access to local grid, application of RO unit has no economic justification, while MEH units, powered by solar energy, are more economic in remote regions receiving adequate solar irradiation. However, the water produced by RO can be purchased at 0.02 $/lit, and by solar MEH unit (Respect to introduced characterization), at 0.032 $/lit. Although, the sensitive analysis of IRRs’ variation in proportion to three factors namely sales income, fixed capital expenditure and operational expenditure were conducted.

Sulfonated nickel phthalocyanine redox flow cell for high-performance electrochemical water desalination

The continued challenge of capacity building in desalination

Due to advances in desalination technology, desalination has been considered as a practical method to meet the increasing global fresh water demand. This paper explores the status of the desalination industry and research work in South Korea. Desalination plant designs, statistics, and the roadmap for desalination research were analyzed. To reduce energy consumption in desalination, seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) has been intensively investigated. Recently, alternative desalination technologies, including forward osmosis, pressure-retarded osmosis, membrane distillation, capacitive deionization, renewable-energy-powered desalination, and desalination batteries have also been actively studied. Related major consortium-based desalination research projects and their pilot plants suggest insights into lowering the energy consumption of desalination and mitigation of the environmental impact of SWRO brine as well. Finally, considerations concerning further development are suggested based on the current status of desalination technology in South Korea.

Performance of high chromium stainless steels and titanium alloys in Arabian Gulf seawater

Performance evaluation of two RO membrane configurations in a MSF/RO hybrid system

Desalination in Tunisia: Past experience and future prospects

UNESCO funds Water Desalination Chair at King Saud University