Environmental Impacts of Seawater Desalination

Abstract:

D esalination is a process that removes dissolved minerals from water. Over the past
century, the lack of water has become quite critical because the level of
groundwater has gone down in many places on Earth. At the same time, the population,
along with its needs, has grown. Figure 1 illustrates that the oceans have endless
quantities of water (~97%); therefore many resources have gone into finding efficient
methods of removing salt from seawater. Water becomes salt-free by distilling or filtering
it, however it requires a large amount of energy. With the help of new technological
advances, desalination has become recently possible in many places around the world.
Currently, there are 7,500 desalination plants in operation worldwide, of which 60% are
located in the Middle East. The world’s largest desalination plant is in Saudi Arabia,
desalinating 800,000 m3 of seawater every day.

Due to the high costs required to operate desalination plants, developing new
technologies to make desalination more economically feasible has become a global
concern. However, to fully assess the benefits of desalination, there are certain concerns
that must be addressed related to environmental impacts. The purpose of this paper is to
address the environmental concerns associated with the desalination process.

Figure 1 – Water resources in planet Earth

  1  
Introduction:
The purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of desalination of seawater, as well
as to address the major environmental effects that result from the conversion of seawater
to drinkable water. Although the importance of desalination is indisputable, there are
several environmental consequences affecting many marine species in nearby areas.
This paper will provide an explanation of the two major desalination techniques used
worldwide, following by the examination of the major environmental concerns that result
from the desalination process.
For simplicity, this paper assumes that the salt found in seawater is sodium chloride,
NaCl, although in general other ions (potassium, bromine, carbon and sulfur ions) are
present. This paper assumes the weight percentage of salt in the sea is 3.5%. That is, for
every 1 kg of seawater, there will be 35g of salt present.

Common desalination processes:

1. Reverse Osmosis (RO)
2. Electrodialysis Reversal (EDR)

Figure 2 – Desalination Capacity Worldwide

1. Reverse Osmosis (RO)

RO has been commercially used since 1969. It is considered the most common
desalination method and is widely used today around the globe, in spite of its high costs.
In the RO process, water from a pressurized seawater (saline) solution is separated from
the dissolved salts by flowing through a water-permeable membrane. The liquid flowing
through the membrane (permeate) flows through the membrane by the pressure
differential created between the pressurized feedwater and the product water, which is at
near-atmospheric pressure. The remaining feedwater continues through the pressurized
side of the reactor as brine. No heating or phase change takes place. The major energy
requirement is for the initial pressurization of the feedwater. For brackish water
desalination the operating pressures range from 250 to 400 psi, and for seawater
desalination from 800 to 1000 psi.

  2  
In practice, the feedwater is pumped into a closed container, against the membrane to
pressurize it. As the product water passes through the membrane, the remaining
feedwater and brine solution become more and more concentrated. To reduce the
concentration of dissolved salts remaining, a portion of this concentrated feedwater-brine
solution is withdrawn from the container. Without this discharge, the concentration of
dissolved salts in the feedwater would continue to increase, requiring ever-increasing
energy inputs to overcome the naturally increased osmotic pressure. Figure 6 illustrates
the basic components of a reverse osmosis system.

Figure 3 – Reverse Osmosis process (RO)

2. Electrodialysis Reversal (EDR)

This process became used for water desalination membrane process that has been used
commercially since 1960. An EDR comprises the steps of collecting seawater and
generating electricity by solar heat, therefore; subjecting seawater is driven to
electrodialysis. The seawater is then separated into two portions of a diluted solution and
concentrated brine. EDR uses electricity to generate a DC field across a stack of flat sheet
ion exchange membranes arranged in a cation – anion configuration. The DC field pulls
unwanted salts across the membranes, creating both a product and a recirculation of brine
water flow.

In EDR, a dialyzer is divided into three sections. Solution flows through the middle
section, between two semi-permeable membranes alternately to positive ions and
negative ions. Electrodes are placed in the adjacent sections. Under the influence of
electric field, positive ions will travel towards the cathode (the negative electrode), and
negative ions towards the anode (the positive electrode), whereby travelling of ions

  3  
through the membrane is accelerated. In this way, the feed water is separated into two
streams: one of pure water and the other of more concentrated solution.

An image of EDR is shown in Figure 4 below:

Figure 4 – Example of an EDR process

Most environmental problems associated with desalination have to do with outcomes of

the desalination process, rather than with the fuels required for the process to operate.
Thus, the biggest environmental concerns associated with desalination of seawater are:
1. High energy and cost required for the desalination process.
2. The ecological effects resulting from the disposal of brine from the desalination
process.
3. The entrainment of aquatic species in and around the desalination plant intake.

1. Energy required for a desalination process

The main reason why desalination is much more expensive than any other water supply
option is energy. Desalination plants use thermal treatment processes, which are a big
source of energy consumption. Reverse osmosis, the most common method of
desalination, requires additional energy to pressurize the water from the intake stream
and force it through the membrane. Additional energy leads to more burning of fossil
fuels that cause air pollution, including greenhouse gases that lead to the heating of the
planet. To reduce burning of additional fossil fuels, many desalination plants recycle
energy through cogeneration. Cogeneration decreases the dependence of plants with the
use of fossil fuels, and therefore reduces dramatically air pollution levels.

  4  
 During the last decade, the number of natural resources has dramatically decreased over
the world in order to answer the increasing demand of energy. Therefore, to reduce the
rate at which natural resources are consumed, there is a use of energy recycling in a
process known as cogeneration. In cogeneration, mostly there is a use of either solar,
hydro and wind energy to generate electricity and useful heat. The heat (steam) can be
used to evaporate feedwater and in a membrane plant it can be used to warm the
feedwater, which increases efficiency. Consequently, the dependence in fuel reduces, and
there are lower levels of pollution. An example for a desalination plant that uses
cogeneration of energy can be found in Kwinana, located in the south of Perth, Australia.
In order to supply water to the Perth metropolitan area, the city built a desalination plant
that converts seawater from nearby Cockburn Sound into nearly 140,000 m3 of drinking
water per day, using reverse osmosis (RO). Kwinana desalination plant used an energy
generated from a nearby wind turbines farm. The turbines provided the Kwinana
desalination plant with the required the annual energy required to operate the plant, 180
GW − hr
, which is 2/3 of its total annual production (See Appendix B for complete
yr
analysis).

In addition to energy costs, the rise in cost of raw materials such as steel, make the cost of
€ desalination more expensive. Additional large costs can be attributed to the capital costs
of the physical plant, transportation, brine disposal, maintenance and cleaning. The high
costs of desalination make it not feasible for many countries that suffer from lack of
water resources to develop the process. Therefore, because of the high expense of
desalination plants, many countries around the world look to private corporations to
develop the process with reduced costs. The ways to reduce desalination costs today are:
Economies of scale, nanofiltration, co-location with power plant, and energy
conservation (cogeneration):
• Economies of scale for desalination are more significant for small and medium
sized plants than for large plants. Doubling the size of a desalination plant from
2.5 million gallons per day (Mgd) to 5.0 Mgd is estimated to reduce costs by 30%.
However, doubling a plant from 25 Mgd to 50 Mgd only reduces the costs by
10% (Cooley et.al., 2006).
• Nanofiltration is a similar process to reverse osmosis as they both have a
membrane filtration process of desalination. The membrane pore size used in
nanofiltration is slightly larger than the pore size used in RO, and less pressure
and energy are required to pass the feed water through the membrane.
• Co-locating with a power plant can reduce costs of desalination because the
construction costs for the desalination plant are reduced because the plant can
share intake and outfall pipes with the power plant. In addition to construction
costs, power costs are also reduced with co-location since the desalination plant
utilizes the warmer water discharged from the power plant. Warmer water
increases the efficiency of the membranes. Co-locating also allows a desalination
plant to mix its discharge with discharges from the power plant, reducing the
salinity and potentially harmful environmental effects of the discharge.

  5  
 2. Ecological effects resulting from the disposal of brine
In the past ten years, more countries have started to use desalination technology that
converts seawater to drinkable water on order to answer the increasing demand of the
population for water. Although seawater is converted to sweet water, desalination plants
do not necessarily have to be located on the coast. A desalination plant can be located
either on the coast or inland, depending on the water source. Desalination of water with
lower salinities level is less expensive, thus causing many desalination plants to be
located near a delta of a certain river. Such areas are critical habitat for many marine
organisms that cannot tolerate high salinity levels1. Other factors responsible for the
location of the sites are waste disposal options, the proximity to energy sources, water
distribution systems, security considerations2, and noise pollution coming from the high-
pressure pumps and energy recovery turbines. Therefore, the location of a desalination
plant should be chosen carefully to minimize the effect of habitats around the plant that
have the potential for adversely affecting the environment in many ways. As a result,
most desalination plats are located far from population centers.

The desalination process produces two streams of water (Figure 5): One stream, called
the purified water, consists of desalinated water that is nearly free of salts and minerals.
The second stream, called brine solution purge (or concentrated stream), consists of high
concentration of salts and minerals (such as iron, chlorides, and sulfates) that remain after
the desalination process.

Figure 5 – Schematic drawing of a RO desalination process

During desalination process, chemicals used during different stages of the process may be
discharged in a solution with the brine or may be discharged to a treatment plant. The
volume of the chemical solution is a small percentage of the total from a desalination
plant. Some of the chemicals used and have carcinogenic risks are: chlorine, iron, ferric
chloride, biocides, sulfur dioxide, coagulants, carbon dioxide, polyelectrolytes, anti-
scalants, sodium bisulfate, antifoam agents, polymers, sodium compounds, hydrochloric
acid, citric acid, alkalines, polyphosphate, copper sulfate, acrolein, propylene glycol and
glycerin. Water that has been through the reverse osmosis process is more acidic and can
corrode the distribution system, leaching iron and other toxic metals from the pipes. Post-
treatment of the desalinated water before entering the distribution system, can reduce the
risk of corrosion.
1
From: California Coastal Commission, 2004; Pantel, 1993
2
From: Arroyo, 2004

  6  
 Figure 6 – Disposal of iron to the Mediterranean Sea From a desalination plan in
Ashkelon, Israel

Dissolved oxygen (DO), temperature, and salinity are considered the three most
important determinants for the growth and survival of marine life. The effect in all
desalination plants resulting from the disposal of brine solution into the sea is the change
in salinity around the disposal site. Most saline bodies of water have naturally fluctuating
salt concentrations. Marine organisms found in saline water are accustomed to this
gradual shift in salinity concentrations. However, those organisms will not be able to
adjust to quicker increases in salinity that is mostly caused by the discharged of brine.
Changes in salinity disturb the equilibrium between the osmotic pressure of body fluid
and the surrounding seawater. This drastic increase may stress or even kill local marine
populations by changing fish migration patterns, feeding grounds, or critical habitat.
In addition to the major change in salinity, disposal of brine also has the potential to
impact the levels of dissolved oxygen in the water. Increases in salinity decrease DO,
resulting in hypoxia. Hypoxia is a condition in which low levels of DO result in stress or
death to aquatic organisms3. Excessively low levels of DO results in death caused by the
inability to metabolize. In addition to hypoxia, a disposal of brine also causes an
elevation in temperature that increases the biomass resulting from the disposal of
entrained organisms. In general, water temperatures over 34oC suppress the rate of
phytoplankton photosynthesis and can disrupt the survival and normal metabolism of
plankton, which consist the basis of marine food chain. Temperatures exceeding 33oC to
35oC may result in the large-scale destruction of algae, and while benthonic organisms
that live on or near the bottom of the ocean can tolerate temporary water temperatures of
roughly 33oC to 36oC, fish can only withstand temperatures of around 34oC. The increase
in temperature during winter may cause different marine organisms to shift the mating
season time that depends on the water temperature4.

3
This is similar to lake stratification, however reduction in DO concentration is not due
to a temperature difference between the different depths, but rather salinity levels.
4
Power plants use water for cooling. Upon discharging back to the river, thermal (heat)
pollution occurs. This huge quantity of warmer water can attract and then trap many
species when the flow slows or stops. In summer, the hot water can add to oxygen-
deficiency in the river water, choking fish and aquatic life.

  7  
Today, the most common method of brine disposal is by a technique called “Deep Well
Injection” (DWI). DWI involves pumping of pressurized brine to depths of about 3,500
to 16,000 feet (1,000 to 5,000 meters). The waste theoretically would move throughout a
porous rock formation protected by a layer of solid (impermeable) rock. This technique
has potential where the formation receiving the brine has high transmissivity (a measure
of how much water can be transmitted horizontally), and is adequately isolated below
aquifers used for water supply. Sandstone overlaid by shale is considered a good choice
for DWI because of shale’s ability to isolate the waste from groundwater and the
environment. An illustration of DWI is shown in Figure 7:

Figure 7 – Illustration of Deep Well Injection

Although DWI is the most common method to dispose brine solutions, it has few
environmental drawbacks. Drawbacks of this technology include:
(1) Selection of a suitable well site.
(2) Costs involved in conditioning the waste brine.
(3) Possibility of corrosion and subsequent leakage in the well casing.
(4) Seismic activity that could cause damage to the well and subsequently results in
ground water contamination.
(5) Seismic activity that could cause earthquakes around the perimeter of the
injection.
(6) Uncertainty of the well half-life, which can only be estimated using mathematical
simulation techniques.
(7) Potential movement of brine outside the porous rock that could increase the
chances that the permanent waste might escape into the environment.

  8  
3. The entrainment of aquatic species in and around the desalination plant intake
In addition to the major environmental effect caused by the disposal of brine into the
ocean, another major environmental problem caused from desalination process occurs in
the intake stream to the process. The intake pipes to the desalination process can be
harmful in two ways affecting directly the environment: impingement and entrainment.
Both ways can occur in any open water intake, such as thermal power plants and
desalination facilities. Impingement occurs when organisms are pulled into an intake pipe
and trapped against a fish screen covering the intake, thus may cause an injury or a death
of the organism. Entrainment occurs when small organisms pass through the fish screen,
and are actually taken into the intake pipes. Entrainment is considered 100 percent lethal
because of the high temperatures or the high pressures found within the plants.
Several steps can minimize impingement and entrainment. The most effective method is
to install beach wells or infiltration passages. The passages pull in seawater through the
covering substrate, instead of an intake pipe that that draws directly from the water
column. The covering substrate functions as a natural filter to keep out small organisms
and insects. The substrate may also provide filtration that improves the quality of the feed
water and reduces (or even eliminates) the need and cost for pre-treatment.
Impingement is mostly a function of the intake water’s velocity. As a result, impingement
can be minimized by limiting the intake velocity to approximately half a foot of water per
second. To affect the intake direction, there should be a use in a velocity cap. Velocity
cap is attached to the intake, changing the direction of the intake from vertical to
horizontal. Fish can better detect horizontal flows; therefore, upon installation of the cap,
fish should avoid entering the intake pipes.
Entrainment can be harder to minimize since the affected organisms are smaller. The
most effective method to minimize entrainment is to locate the intake facility in the least
damaging habitat area. A more expensive method is to install a structural methods using
small diameter round screens that allow fish to return to the source water when they enter
the intake pipe5.
Most desalination plants today were built before the impacts of impingement and
entrainment were understood. These older plants consist of a cooling system that pumps
seawater through heat exchangers before discharging the water back to the environment.
These cooling systems are not expensive, however they are responsible for a significant
impingement and entrainment impacts on the environment. Most plants at present time
that uses cooling water in the process (desalination, nuclear) do not try to minimize
impingement and entrainment of marine organisms simply because the cost of
compliance far exceeds the benefits. However, some plants minimize impingement and
entrainment of marine organisms, such as the nuclear plant in Salem, New Jersey. This
nuclear plant installed in the mid-1990s fish ladders in tidal creeks around Delaware Bay
to reduce the incidents of fish entering one of the intake streams.

5
From: California Coastal Commission, 2004; California Water Desalination Task Force,
2003; Shea, 2004.

  9  
Conclusion
This paper presented the concept of desalination of seawater. At the first part, the two
most common methods of desalination used worldwide were discussed – Reverse
Osmosis and Electrodialysis Reversal. At the second part, the environmental effects
resulting from desalination process – Large energy usage, disposal of brine to the ocean,
and the entrainment of aquatic species near the intake area.
The use in desalination has increased once it was understood that natural resources were
reduced. There is a constant tradeoff between the need to supply drinking water to people
around the world, and the need to keep the environment with minimum pollution levels
for next generations. Desalination of seawater causes several environmental problems
that mostly affect air pollution and marine species. Air pollution is created from the
burning of fossil fuels, while marine species are affected from the disposal of brine
returning to the ocean.
Different methods are implemented to reduce the environmental effects of desalination.
To reduce the demand for fossil fuels, most desalination plants today use recycled
energy, in a process known as cogeneration. To dispose the brine, deep well injections
(DWI) are drilled thousands of feet below the ground in order to dispose the brine
solution into an impermeable rock layer. Nevertheless, DWI applications may arise
different environmental problems such as local earthquakes in areas nearby drilling sites.
Current focus of desalination plants consists of the following objectives:
• Increasing efficiency of the desalination process
• Using energy from cogeneration rather than from the burning of fossil fuels
• Minimize disposal of brine into the ocean, by developing more environment-
friendly DWI techniques

  10  
 Appendix A: Thermodynamic and costs aspects of a desalination process
The energy required for a desalination plant to convert seawater to drinkable water is
high. In this paper, the assumption is that the intake stream for the desalination process is
ideal. This implies that there is no change in volume when the two components (water
and salt) are added independently, no heat of mixing is generated, but there is still a
change in the entropy of the system – All the work that is added the system comes in the
form of heat, or by the second law of thermodynamics, the entropy of the universe is
increasing in the form of heat flow.
. .
W s ≥ −T0 Δ S
. ⎛ i ⎞
W s ≥ Δ⎜ T0 R∑ x i ln(x i )⎟
⎝ i=1 ⎠

Therefore, for an ideal mixture, the minimum work required to perform the separation is
described by the following expression:
€ .
W s ≥ −T0 R( x1 ln(x1 ) + x 2 ln(x 2 ))

For simplicity, this paper assumes that salt found in seawater is sodium chloride, NaCl,
although in general there are also potassium, bromine, carbon and sulfur ions present.
This paper assumes€the weight percentage of salt in the sea is 3.5%, meaning that in
every 1 kg of sea-water, there will be 35g of salt present.
In order to convert from weight fraction to mole fraction, the following conversion is
made:
W = grams of sodium chloride
x= mole fraction
g g
MW = molecular weights: water: MW1=18.01 ; sodium chloride: MW2=58.44
mol mol
n = Number of moles
1 = water
2 = sodium chloride
€ €
W2
= n 2 = moles of salt.
MW 2
1− W 2
= n1 = moles of water.
MW1
€
n2
x2 = = mole fraction of salt in the mixture.
n1 + n 2
€
W2 W2
MW 2 MW 2
x2 = ⇒ x2 =
€ W1 W2 ⎛ (1 − W 2 ) W 2 ⎞
+ ⎜ + ⎟
MW1 MW 2 ⎝ MW1 MW 2 ⎠

  11  
€
 This section will distinguish between two cases:
1. Separation of the intake stream to pure water and pure sodium chloride.
2. Separation of the intake stream to pure water and concentrated brine, assuming
that the concentration of the brine is twice as the intake stream. Therefore, W2=
0.07wt%.
1. Separation of seawater to pure water and pure sodium chloride:
After plugging the numbers, we get that the mole fraction of sodium chloride in the
seawater stream is x2=0.011. This implies that x1, the mole fraction of the “pure water” in
the seawater mixture is equal to 1- x2=0.989.

Figure 10 – Desalination diagram of separation to pure components

To evaluate the energy consumption of desalination process, this paper will assume that
the every day 140,000 m3 of seawater are desalinated. This is how much water is
desalinated everyday in Kwinana Desalination Plant, which will be discussed later in this
section. To get the flow rate per second, the following conversion is made:

140,000m 3 1day 1000L L

* * 3 = 1620.37
1day 86,400sec 1m sec

Using the equation to calculate the required work to desalinate water:

€
. J
W s ≥ −298K * 8.314 (0.011ln(0.011) + 0.989ln(0.989))
mol * K
. J
W s ≥150.09
mol
. J 1mol 1620.37L 1035kg 1000g 1m 3
W s ≥150.09
mol 58.44g 1s m3 1kg 1000L
.
W s ≥ 4,307.21kW

This implies that the minimum amount of work required for the reactor to convert
seawater to pure water and for pure sodium chloride has to be greater than 4,307.21kW.
€

  12  
 The economical analysis for the separation of seawater to pure water and pure sodium
L
chloride consists the volumetric flow rate of the intake stream, which is 1620.37 , the
s
¢
electricity price at the State of Michigan, which is 10.14 , and the conversion
kw − hr
between kW-hr to Joules (in 1 kW-hr there are 3.6*106J), we can say that:
€
kJ s kJ
4,307.21kW = 4,307.21 * =€2.66
s 1620.37L L
J $ 1000L 7.49¢
2.66 *10 3 * 0.1014 6 * =
L 3.6 *10 J m3 m3

2. Separation of seawater to pure water and concentrated brine:

Theoretically, we should expect that this process would require much less energy. This is
€ because we want to separate the incoming seawater into pure water and seawater with a
specific concentration. This is different than the previous part since the separation of the
seawater is not to pure sodium chloride, but rather to concentrated brine. Plugging in the
numbers with W2= 0.07wt%, we get that the mole fraction of the sodium chloride in the
seawater stream is x2=0.023. This implies that x1, the mole fraction of pure water in the
concentrated seawater mixture, is equal to 1- x2=0.977.

Figure 9 – Common desalination diagram

This separation is different than the previous section, since the outlet stream is
concentrated brine. This process has two stages:
• Separation of seawater into pure water and pure salt.
• Mix the pure two streams back to a second reactor that outputs only a
concentrated salt mixture.
Now we have to perform a mass balance on the system (circled in black in Figure 9) for
the salt stream, since not all the salt is used. Assuming 1 mole of seawater is going
through the first reactor:
1mol * (0.011) = Fmol * (0.023)
∴ F = 0.478mol

€
  13  
 Now this F value is the number of moles of salt you get out of the desalination process in
order to reach a final seawater concentration of 7wt%.
When evaluating the minimum amount of work required, we have to consider that now
we have to remember that the change in entropy between the two mixtures has 0.478
mole of pure salt instead of 1 mole.
. ⎛ i ⎞
W s ≥ Δ⎜ T0 R∑ x i ln(x i )⎟
⎝ i=1 ⎠
.
[( ) (
W s ≥ −RT * x1 f ln(x1 f ) + x 2 f ln(x 2 f ) − 0.478 x1i ln(x1i ) + x 2 i ln(x 2 i ) )]
. J
W s ≥ −8.314 * 298K * [(0.977ln(0.977) + 0.023ln(0.023)) − 0.478(0.989ln(0.989) + 0.011ln(0.011))]
molK
. J 1mol 1620.37L 1070kg 1000g 1m 3
W s ≥199.68 * * * * *
mol 58.44g 1s m3 1kg 1000L
.
W s ≥ 5,924.1kW

This implies that the minimum amount of work required for the reactor to convert
€ seawater to pure water and a concentrated solution has to be greater than 5,924.1kW.
From here we can see that raising the seawater concentration to a 7wt% mixture takes
about 38% more energy than converting the seawater to pure salt. This can be explained
due to the additional stage that is required in desalination process. This desalination
process model is currently used in the industry.
The economical analysis for the separation of seawater to pure water and a concentrated
brine solution
kJ s kJ
5,924.1kW = 5,924.1 * = 3.66
s 1620.37L L
J 0.1014$ 1000L 10.30¢
3.66 *10 3 * * =
L 3.6 *10 6 J m3 m3
In an economical point of view, this modified desalination process is also slightly more
expensive than the desalination process separating to two pure components.
€
Cost of desalination is different for every plant. Worldwide, a plant that desalinates
50¢
seawater with a price below 3  is considered efficient.
m

  14  
 Appendix B: Operational costs for “Kwinana Desalination Plant”
Kwinana is a city that is located in the south of Perth, Australia. In order to supply water
to the Perth metropolitan area, city built a desalination plant, converting seawater from
nearby Cockburn Sound6 into nearly 140,000 m3 of drinking water per day, using reverse
osmosis (RO). Kwinana desalination plant used cogeneration of energy by using energy
that is extracted from 48 wind turbines that are present in the “Emu downs wind farm”
located nearby the desalination plant. The turbines provide desalination plant with 2/3 of
GW − hr
its total annual energy production of 270 .
yr

Figure 8 – Emu downs wind farm

Cost comparison of Kwinana Desalination Plant to an ideal plant:
GW − hr
Power required: 180
yr
Amount per day: 140,000m3
The price for one day per cubic meter of seawater:
€
m3
Water: 140,000 *1day = 140,000m 3
1day
W − hr 1year
Energy: 180 *10 9 * *1day = 4.931*10 8 W − hr
1year 365day
€
4.931*10 8 W − hr W − hr
Energy per volume of water: 3
= 3522.5
140,000m m3
€
3.522kW − hr 0.1014$ 35.7¢
Cost Calculation: * =
m3 kW − hr m3
€ more expensive than the cost calculated for an ideal desalination
This is almost 3.5 times
process calculated in Appendix A.
€
6
Inlet of the Indian Ocean on the coast of Western Australia with an area of around
100km2

  15  
References:
• Perry, R. H., and Green, D. W. “Perry’s Chemical Engineers’ Handbook.” 7th ed.,
McGraw-Hill, 1997
• Sandler, Stanley I. Chemical, Biochemical, and Engineering Thermodynamics.
4th edition.
• Miller, James E. “Review of Water Resources and Desalination Technologies”,
Department of Material Chemistry, Sandia National Laboratory, New Mexico,
2003.
• National Academy of Sciences – National Research Council. “Desalination
Research and The Water Problem”, Publication 941, Washington D.C, 1962.
• The National Academies Press. “Desalination – A National Perspective”,
Committee on Advancing Desalination Technology, National Research Council,
Washington D.C, 2003
• Frenkel, Val., “Desalination Methods, Technology, and Economics”,
Kennedy/Jenks Consultants.
• Oren, Yoram., The Department of Desalination & Water Treatment, Zuckerberg
Institute for Water Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
Images websites – Arranged by order of appearance in the document:
• http://www.idswater.com/Common/Paper/Paper_90/z1.jpg
• http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/54/EmuDownsWindFar
m.jpg/600px-EmuDownsWindFarm.jpg
• http://www.idswater.com/Common/Paper/Paper_90/z2.jpg
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• http://www.thewatertreatments.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/ed.jpg

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