Transcript Commercial Desalination - University of San Diego

By: Alyssa Beerling, Frankie Victoria, Joey Seiler,
Melissa Lupinacci
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100406093636.htm
What is Desalination?
Misconception of
Desalination
 is a process that involves the
 Desalination of sea and
removal of brine and other
minerals, such as chemical
compounds from sea water or
brackish water.
Potential Negative Impact
brackish water have offered a
wide rang of human health,
socio-economic, and
environmental benefits by
providing an unlimited and
constant supply of high
quality drinking water
• Impairment of coastal water quality
• Affects on marine life
• Air pollution emissions which are attributed to the energy and
cost demand of the process
Reverse Osmosis
http://coolingtower-design.com/2011/01/25/reverse-osmosis
Distillation
http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/h2oqual/watsys/ae1032w.htm
Output of Desalination
Plants
 Brine
 Twice as much salt
 Toxic Chemicals


Treatment/Maintanence
Heavy metals
 Heated discharge
Impacts
 Subtle Changes in the marine
environment can affect it
extensively
 Worldwide ocean:


Temperature= 15 to 20
Degrees Celsius
Salinity= 30 to 37 ppt
 Affects of brine


Salinity
Chemicals
 Thermal pollution
 Groundwater is also at risk
http://www.hardrainproject.com/hrpl?n=1178
Source Water Acquisition
 Marine Water Intake Issues
 Impingement
 Entrainment
 Brackish Groundwater
 Sustainability of the aquifer
 Subsidence
 Seawater intrusion
Environmental Impacts from
Concentrate Management
 Coastal Concentrate Discharge into Oceans, Seas,
Estuaries
 Studies of Effects of Concentrate on Specific Marine
Organisms
 Case Studies


Sensitivity to Salinity (Rinne, 1971)
Effects of Concentrate on Sea grass (Latorre, 2005)
Economic Costs
 Tampa Bay Seawater
Desalination Plant
 150 million dollar
operation
 Yuma Desalting Plant
 245 million dollar
project
 Costs of delivery
 Efficiency of
desalination
 15%-50% efficient
Energy Costs
 Solubility properties of
salt
 Desalination in Australia
 Coal as energy source
 Desalination in Saudi
Arabia
 Oil as energy source
 Environmental toll
Work Cited
 http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/269784/desalination_pr
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
os_and_cons_of_a_typically_thorny_issue.html
http://www.resources.ca.gov/ocean/97Agenda/Chap5Desal.html
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/5155
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/11/world/asia/11water.html?pagewanted
=all
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-dont-we-get-ourdrinking-water-from-the-ocean
http://www.pacinst.org/reports/desalination/desalination_report.pdf
 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0011916407006005
 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0011916405006041