Reuse of brine from inland desalination plants with duckweed, fish and halophytes toward increased food production and improved environmental control

Abstract

Desalination as means for solving water shortage suffers from three major drawbacks: (i) high energy demand; (ii) fouling, related membrane clogging and time dependent flow reduction, and; (iii) issues related to brine disposal. Reuse of the brine/concentrate is an environmental matter however, also and economic issue and a key factor hindering further adaptation of advanced desalination treatment technologies primarily in inland areas. A novel solution that is based on reuse of the brine for fish growth and utilization of the wastes generated in the fish ponds to culture duckweed plants as feed for the fish; the remaining saline water will be used to cultivate nutritious halophytes green plants. The novelty of the approach lies in the conversion of brine produced in inland industrial desalination plants into a valuable food and water resource. This process will allow saline water application for the production of nutritionary meat (fish), an additional food source (duckweed) and halophytes (Salicornia plants) and serve as a vehicle for better environmental control. A brine-management model, including economic considerations of most system components of the brine produced from inland desalination plants, is presented. The model allows to assess the benefits of food production and improved environment control.