Chapter 17 - Inland desalination: techniques, brine management, and environmental concerns

Abstract

This chapter reviews the available desalination techniques, brine management, and the environmental impact of land-based desalination plants. Desalination technology plays an important role in providing fresh water to the increasing demand caused by an increase in population. The main conventional desalination techniques include multistage flash multiple-effect distillation and reverse osmosis (RO). However, most existing inland desalination plants use RO. While conventional desalination technologies dominate the market nowadays, there are several emerging techniques that have the potential to be adopted for full-scale inland desalination. Regardless of the technology used, several environmental concerns associated with inland desalination exist. The reject brine from desalination plants can alter the physical and chemical properties of the soil. The brine may also find its way to groundwater and can alter its properties. While there have been some efforts directed for better management of brine, more work needs to be done from research and practical points of view. Greenhouse gases generated because of energy consumption for desalination are also of great concern. Several approaches have been reported in the literature with the aim of reducing the energy consumption of desalination. Some approaches focus on improving or optimizing an existing process, while others suggest shifting to a new technology that offers a reduction in energy consumption and focuses on using renewable energy resources in the desalination process.