Freshwater reserves around the world are being depleted faster than ever, and scarcity will only grow. With global warming taking its toll, freshwater is becoming a scarce resource.<\/p>\n
Large industries use water in a significant share of their manufacturing, construction and other processes, so there is a real need for plants that desalinate seawater efficiently. Before looking at the benefits, let us look at the process.<\/p>\n
Seawater desalination removes salts from saline water using a range of processes, including:<\/p>\n
There are three main ways to improve the efficiency of a desalination plant: co-location, cogeneration and hybrid technology.<\/p>\n
Desalination reduces demand on existing freshwater resources and can help avoid the water crises that come with it. Water is far more than a survival need, and conflicts over it are a real risk in the future. At the very least, desalinated water can supply large industries and manufacturing plants, leaving freshwater for public supply.<\/p>\n
With the right equipment and technology, desalinated water meets, and can exceed, drinking water standards. By taking pressure off freshwater sources, desalination helps protect them. Many freshwater animals and plants need protecting to keep nature in balance, and replacing part of the demand for freshwater with desalinated water helps keep those reserves safe.<\/p>\n
Because the sea is seen as a vast but unusable body of salt water, it is often neglected, and we tend to pollute what we consider worthless. Knowing that seawater can be turned into usable water makes us more likely to value it. Raising awareness of its potential can encourage responsible use and efforts to clean up pollutants and oil spills, which also benefits marine life.<\/p>\n
This is the main benefit of desalination. Around 70% of the Earth is covered by water, but only about 2.5% of it is fresh, and most of that is locked up in glaciers and snowfields, so only a very small fraction is actually available to us. Faced with this scarcity, we need alternatives. Saudi Arabia, for example, obtains a large share of its drinking water through seawater desalination: despite its desert climate and frequent droughts, the country relies on desalinated water.<\/p>\n
Large industries and manufacturing plants consume significant amounts of freshwater in production, depleting reserves worldwide. Supplying desalinated water to every home is still a long way off, but it can already be used by companies that consume large volumes of freshwater. More and more countries regulate industrial freshwater use and encourage the switch to desalinated water.<\/p>\n
This may seem surprising, since desalination is often expensive. In the long term, however, it supports economic stability.<\/p>\n
Water is essential to life and to everyday activities such as cooking, washing and cleaning. A country facing a water crisis may have to import water, which requires a huge investment and can drain its finances. With a proper seawater desalination strategy, a country can avoid the need to import water and prevent future crises.<\/p>\n
Even the freshest mountain water is not free of contaminants, and it is only considered fit for consumption after treatment. Desalination removes not only salt but also harmful chemicals, metals, bacteria and other contaminants that may be present in the source, so desalinated water can be as safe as tap water.<\/p>\n
Because of its desert location, Israel naturally faces water scarcity, with extreme weather and long droughts. The government has tackled it with three strategies:<\/p>\n
Israel has earned a reputation as a world leader in desalination. Tahal, the engineering company that led the country’s water planning, drew up the national desalination plan, and today its large plants cover most of the country’s municipal water demand.<\/p>\n
Through incubators, the government encourages both private innovation and public\u2013private collaboration. Water utilities receive funding to test new concepts in real conditions, and when a technology works well in one city, other utilities soon adopt it. Simulation models are also used to reduce uncertainty in water management. As a result, Israel is at the forefront of water technology, supplying reliable, high-quality water through desalination in a water-scarce region.<\/p>\n
When properly designed and maintained, seawater desalination can be a very reliable and environmentally responsible way of supplying water. The planet is on the brink of a water crisis, and efforts are under way to reverse past damage, such as restoring flows to the Colorado River delta. It is time to replace freshwater with desalinated water where we can.<\/p>\n
Looking for a reliable partner for seawater desalination? KEIKEN designs and builds desalination plants<\/a> for industry. Call us on +34 910 577 254, email info@keiken.es or contact us<\/a>.<\/p>\n Because it does not depend on rainfall. A borehole can lose yield or become saline, an abstraction licence can be cut during a drought and mains supply can be restricted; seawater cannot. That independence from rainfall is what makes it a secure source, even if it is not the cheapest.<\/p>\n Today, reverse osmosis with energy recovery devices, which use the pressure of the reject stream to pressurise part of the feed water. It uses considerably less energy than thermal distillation, which only pays off where waste heat is available on site.<\/p>\n Yes, with the right post-treatment. The water leaving the membranes has very low salinity and is slightly aggressive, so before distribution it is remineralised to stabilise it and protect the pipework, and then disinfected. For industrial use, post-treatment is tailored to the process requirements.<\/p>\n Mainly two: energy consumption, with the emissions associated with the energy used, and the discharge of the reject. The latter is managed by sizing the dilution and verifying its effect on the receiving environment, with the corresponding study and permit. In inland plants without an outfall, reject management shapes the whole project.<\/p>\n See our breakdown of the cost of desalinated water<\/a>, brine management in inland plants<\/a> or our desalination<\/a> solutions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Freshwater is becoming scarcer. How efficient seawater desalination works, how plants improve their energy efficiency and what it offers industry and society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5844,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-desalination"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/keikengroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/keikengroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/keikengroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keikengroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keikengroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11101"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/keikengroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11830,"href":"https:\/\/keikengroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11101\/revisions\/11830"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keikengroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/keikengroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keikengroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keikengroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Frequently asked questions<\/h2>\n
Why is desalination considered a reliable source for the future?<\/h3>\n
Which method uses the least energy?<\/h3>\n
Is it fit for human consumption and industrial use?<\/h3>\n
What environmental effects need to be considered?<\/h3>\n