A Survey of Water Desalination Methods and their Relevance to Australia

Water scarcity is a critical global issue, necessitating efficient water purification and desalination methods. Membrane separation methods are environmentally friendly and consume less energy, making them more economical compared to other desalination and purification methods. This survey explores the application of artificial intelligence (AI) to predict membrane behaviour in water purification and desalination processes. Various AI platforms, including machine learning (ML) and artificial neural networks (ANNs), were utilised to model water flux, predict fouling behaviour, simulate micropollutant dynamics and optimise operational parameters. Specifically, models such as convolutional neural networks (CNNs), recurrent neural networks (RNNs) and support vector machines (SVMs) have demonstrated superior predictive capabilities in these applications. This review studies recent advancements, emphasising the superior predictive capabilities of AI models compared to traditional methods. Key findings include the development of AI models for various membrane separation techniques and the integration of AI concepts such as ML and ANNs to simulate membrane fouling, water flux and micropollutant behaviour, aiming to enhance wastewater treatment and optimise treatment and desalination processes. In conclusion, this review summarised the applications of AI in predicting the behaviour of membranes as well as their strengths, weaknesses and future directions of AI in membranes for water purification and desalination processes.

The relevance of the study is due to the fact that the presented object, namely mineral waters in the modern world have a huge potential and play an important role in farming, the coal industry, and in many other fields of life. Mineral water desalination technologies also affect the environment, so there are requirements for improving the methods of recycling brines and regenerative solutions in the desalination of water, due to which it is possible to make a substantial contribution to meeting the requirements of a number of consumers. The purpose of the study is to conduct an experiment, as a result of which recommendations will be made to eliminate errors and improve the quality of various methods of desalination of mineral waters and prevent the problem of disposal of brine, which, when discharged into reservoirs or evaporative sites, substantially worsen the ecological situation. Among the methods used are analytical, experimental, functional, statistical, classification, synthesis. In the course of the study, the features of mineral waters were noted, errors that were made during treatment, and the causes of their occurrence were analysed, and difficulties in the field of coal industry enterprises were analysed: the formation of water, its composition, properties, and degree of impact on the environment. It is important to understand the possibilities of various methods that allow choosing the best technological modes of operation of water treatment processes and successfully solving environmental problems with minimal consumption of reagents, water, and its discharge to the external environment. The practical value lies in the fact that the results obtained can be useful for the industry where mineral resources are extracted and processed, for researchers engaged in the development of new desalination methods, and can substantially reduce production costs and ensure the ecology of the process.

The relevance of the study is due to the fact that the presented object, namely mineral waters in the modern world have a huge potential and play an important role in farming, the coal industry, and in many other fields of life. Mineral water desalination technologies also affect the environment, so there are requirements for improving the methods of recycling brines and regenerative solutions in the desalination of water, due to which it is possible to make a substantial contribution to meeting the requirements of a number of consumers. The purpose of the study is to conduct an experiment, as a result of which recommendations will be made to eliminate errors and improve the quality of various methods of desalination of mineral waters and prevent the problem of disposal of brine, which, when discharged into reservoirs or evaporative sites, substantially worsen the ecological situation. Among the methods used are analytical, experimental, functional, statistical, classification, synthesis. In the course of the study, the features of mineral waters were noted, errors that were made during treatment, and the causes of their occurrence were analysed, and difficulties in the field of coal industry enterprises were analysed: the formation of water, its composition, properties, and degree of impact on the environment. It is important to understand the possibilities of various methods that allow choosing the best technological modes of operation of water treatment processes and successfully solving environmental problems with minimal consumption of reagents, water, and its discharge to the external environment. The practical value lies in the fact that the results obtained can be useful for the industry where mineral resources are extracted and processed, for researchers engaged in the development of new desalination methods, and can substantially reduce production costs and ensure the ecology of the process.

Purpose: review of existing technologies and methods of seawater desalination for drinking water supply. Discussion. Based on modern research methods using statistical data and a review of domestic and foreign literature, a review of methods and technologies for desalination and desaltation of highly mineralized natural waters was carried out. The use of sea water for domestic purposes is impossible due to the high content of minerals, however, after desalination, such water can be used for drinking. The choice of technologies and methods of desalination is primarily determined by the quality of source water, as well as the requirements for the quality of treated water, plant productivity and technical and economic calculations. For the drinking water supply purposes, the most efficient and cost-effective method is desalination using reverse osmosis technology, used for both sea and groundwater with high salinity. Reverse osmosis technology has significant advantages over thermal desalination, especially when applied to small-scale plants of small domestic water supply systems. The use of reverse osmosis plants will significantly increase productivity of drinking water output per watt of electricity consumed. Conclusions. The introduction of modern technologies and careful attention to water consumption play a significant role in maintaining water balance in different countries. The most cost-effective and efficient method is seawater desalination using reverse osmosis plants. Despite the fact that water desalination and desaltion plants are very expensive, the conservation of natural waters is a priority nowadays.

Object and purpose of research. The article discusses in comparison the methods of desalination of seawater and their energy features from the point of view of the feasibility of including a desalination plant in the complex with a floating nuclear power unit. Materials and methods. Based on the analysis of various literary sources, a review of the main methods of nuclear desalination is made. The IAEA DEEP program was used to compare different desalination technologies. Main results. Based on the results of simulating nuclear desalination in the IAEA DEEP program, using the example of the Persian Gulf, preliminary recommendations were drawn up on the use of desalination methods in the joint operation of a desalination plant with a floating nuclear power unit. Conclusion. The integrated complex allows for desalination by both membrane and thermal methods. For the optimal choice of technology, it is necessary to specify the area of deployment and the relative position of the floating nuclear power unit and the desalination plant, and further search for a compromise based on more accurate calculations.

ABSTRACTResearch has been devoted to the desalination of saline water to fresh water suitable for human demands because of the shortage of water in some countries. Therefore, in this study, reverse‐osmosis membranes were prepared via the γ‐radiation graft copolymerization of acrylic acid onto high‐density and low‐density polyethylene. The factors that could affect the grafting process, such as the solvent type, monomer and inhibitor concentration, and irradiation dose, were investigated to determine the optimum conditions for radiation grafting. The polyethylene grafted acrylic acid copolymers (PAAc‐g‐PE) graft copolymer was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and mechanical, rheological, and thermal property testing to illustrate the possibility of practical use in water desalination. The prepared grafted membranes showed significant results in the reverse‐osmosis desalination method with underground saline water. The factors affecting the desalination of water, such as the water flux, operation time, and grafting percentage, were studied. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017, 134, 45410.

The article deals with the problem of choosing the optimum desalination system for seawater for the Crimean region. Criteria are proposed for choosing the optimal method of desalination - “study and reliability”, “geographic”, “industrial application”, “economic”, “electricity consumption”, “environmental safety” and others. Criterion “study and authenticity” means that the method must be well studied and applied in practice (therefore, the methods of desalination not introduced in production are not accepted). Criterion “geographical” takes into account the climatic features of the regions. Criterion “industrial application” analyses the industrial application of the method. The criterion of “economic” takes into account the costs of water preparation, reagents, additional treatment facilities and the like. The criterion of “limitation” takes into account the limitation of the initial level of salt content of the cultivated water for desalination. The criterion of “temporal” takes into account the period of possible operation of desalination plants. The criterion of “electricity consumption” takes into account the energy consumption for desalination of sea water. Criterion of “ecological safety” takes into account the physicochemical properties of water after desalination. Based on these criteria, a choice of 12 alternatives was made. It was found out that the most suitable method of desalination in this region is vacuum distillation.

In recent years, more efforts have been made to improve new and more efficient non-membrane-based methods for water desalination. Capacitive deionization (CDI), a novel technique for water desalination using an electric field to adsorb ions from a solution to a high-porous media, has the capability to recover a fraction of the energy consumed for the desalination during the regeneration process, which happens to be its most prominent characteristic among other desalination methods. This paper introduces a new desalination method that aims improving the performance of traditional CDI systems. The proposed process consists of an array of CDI cells connected in series with buffer containers in between them. Each buffer, serve two purposes: 1) average the outlet solution from the preceding cell, and 2) secure a continuous water supply to the following cell. Initial evaluation of the proposed CDI system architecture was made by comparing a two-cell-one-buffer assembly with a two cascaded cells array. Concentration of the intermediate solution buffer was the minimum averaged concentration attained at the outlet of the first CDI cell, under a steady state condition. The obtained results show that proposed CDI system with intermediate solution had better performance in terms of desalination percentage. This publication opens new opportunities to improve the performance of CDI systems and implement this technology on industrial applications.

In recent years, more efforts have been made to improve new and more efficient nonmembrane-based methods for water desalination. Capacitive deionization (CDI), a novel technique for water desalination using an electric field to adsorb ions from a solution to a high-porous media, has the capability to recover a fraction of the energy consumed for the desalination during the regeneration process, which happens to be its most prominent characteristic among other desalination methods. This paper introduces a new desalination method that aims at improving the performance of traditional CDI systems. The proposed process consists of an array of CDI cells connected in series with buffer containers in between them. Each buffer serves two purposes: (1) averaging the outlet solution from the preceding cell and (2) securing a continuous water supply to the following cell. Initial evaluation of the proposed CDI system architecture was made by comparing a two-cell-one-buffer assembly with a two cascaded cells array. Concentration of the intermediate solution buffer was the minimum averaged concentration attained at the outlet of the first CDI cell, under a steady-state condition. The obtained results show that the proposed CDI system with intermediate solution had better performance in terms of desalination percentage. This publication opens new opportunities to improve the performance of CDI systems and implement this technology on industrial applications.

Meeting the energy and water demands of remote areas has created significant challenges globally. To address this issue, the utilization of hybrid energy-water systems, integrated with renewable energies, has been highlighted as a viable solution. This work has been focused on the multi-objective optimization of a hybrid energy system, encompassing photovoltaic panels, batteries, diesel generators, and desalination units. The design goals to achieve the optimal configuration include minimizing system costs, reducing carbon dioxide emissions, enhancing the renewable factor, and improving reliability. Also, for the mentioned design goals, the performance of three desalination methods including reverse osmosis (RO), multi-stage flash (MSF), and multiple-effect distillation (MED) was evaluated by Hybrid Optimization of Multiple Energy Resources (HOMER) software. Our findings reveal that the RO desalination method, when combined with renewable energy, outperforms other methods both economically and environmentally. Notably, the RO method reduces net present cost (NPC) by 6.18% and 8.25% and carbon dioxide emissions by 38% and 46%, respectively, compared to MED and MSF methods. Additionally, sensitivity analysis, considering factors such as interest rate, photovoltaic panel cost, battery cost, and fuel cost, was conducted on NPC. The results showed that with a 2% decrease in the interest rate, the amount of NPC increases by about 2.4% due to the increase in the share of renewable energy. Therefore, reducing the interest rate helps to design a system with less carbon dioxide emissions. This work, by highlighting the economic and environmental implications of different desalination methods, as well as key cost factors, contributes to the optimal design of combined energy-water schemes for remote areas.

Fouling effect on Reverse Osmosis (RO) membranes performance in desalination plant

The desalination of sea and salty water is one of the alternatives in solving the problem of freshwater recourses shortage. Reverse osmosis and distillation desalination methods are widely used for industrial, household and potable water supply. Each method requires definite energy and material costs. That’s why the problem of developing and researching the most effective energy and financial desalination plants is up to date. The aim of our research is the analysis of self-sufficient hygroscopic desalination plant operation efficiency. The comparative analysis of the most popular desalination methods has been carried out. The authors describe the desalination plant components and its operation principle. The main factors that influence plant intensity are determined. The plant developed efficiency is to increase the performance due to additional steam generation on the basis of steam-gas-liquid balanced condition law. Energy effectiveness increase is reached thanks to heat energy recycling in a condenser-separator and in a fresh water coil. The authors state that one of the best ways to accelerate the hygroscopic desalination process is to increase the initial temperature of water in barbotage area. The plant developed is characterized with high energy effectiveness, low costs and high quality of fresh water obtained.

Large-scale water desalination methods: a review and new perspectives

The shortage of freshwater is becoming a major threat to sustainable environmental development. Water desalination techniques provide solutions for freshwater requirements. Solar energy is considered as a plentiful and effortlessly available renewable energy. Desalination with solar energy is a suitable technique to convert brackish water into fresh water and that has received greater attention. The traditional desalination processes require a substantial quantity of energy, and with an extensive investigation of different methods of desalination, frameworks have experimented in the most recent couple of decades. The different types of desalination techniques using solar energy with exergy analysis are studied and presented in this review paper. The exergy performance cost affecting factors and the economic feasibility of several desalination plants such as solar stills, humidification and dehumidification, multi-effect distillation, reverse osmosis, and multi-stage flash desalination techniques are studied and reported in this paper. The present study revealed that the desalination of water using solar energy as an efficient as well as a cost-effective method as compared desalination of water with other energy sources.

Performance enhancement and optimization of solar chimney power plant integrated with transparent photovoltaic cells and desalination method