Desalination Research Progress

As freshwater resources continue to decline as the population grows and development activities continue, desalination has taken on a sense of urgency. Desalination refers to any of several processes that remove excess salt and other minerals from water. Desalination may also refer to the removal of salts and minerals more generally, as in soil desalination. This book includes within its scope distillation, membranes, reverse osmosis, electrodialysis, ion exchange, freezing, water purification, and water reuse and wastewater treatment. This new volume examines new research in this frontier field.

This book collects current scientific information on advanced technologies and management practices associated with the desalination industry in the Middle East and elsewhere around the world. The book opens with introductory chapter which briefly recounts the history of desalination, and describes the current state of development in the field. Part I: Desalination Systems includes ten chapters which describe a variety of techniques and designs intended not only to minimize the impact of desalination, but also to save energy and use natural resources to maximize the output of integrated desalination systems. Among the highlights are a chapter on the use of ceramic membrane technology for sustainable oil water production; a case study on the use of solar heating systems in desalination technology in Oman; discussion of fouling and its effect on design and performance of desalination systems; a review of shore approaches and sea-lines with case studies from Australia and Germany; and a discussion of the integration of desalination technology with renewable energy for climate change abatement in the Middle East and North Africa region. Part II: Environmental Systems includes among others a chapter on regulating the use of water resources and desalination technology on a regional scale reducing the carbon footprint of desalination, with examples from Australia; a description of desalination for irrigation in the Souss Massa region in the south of Morocco; a study of the impact of the coastal intake environment on operating conditions of thermal desalination plants in the United Arab Emirates; a discussion of hydrodynamic and thermal dispersion modeling of the effluent in a coastal channel, with a case study from Oman; and a mathematical model study of effluent disposal from a desalination plant in the marine environment at Tuticorin in India. The book aims to inspire developments in desalination technologies which are specifically aimed at reducing energy consumption and cost, and minimizing environmental impact.

Desalination is a dynamically growing field with more research, more engineering, more applications, more countries, more people, and with more training programs. This book provides high quality invited reviews on progress in various aspects of the desalination field. It features comprehensive coverage of desalination science, technology, economics, markets, energy considerations, environmental impact, and more. It is a key guide for professionals and researchers in water desalination and related areas including chemical, mechanical, and civil engineers, chemists, materials scientists, manufacturers of desalination membranes, water reuse engineers, and water authorities, as well as students in these fields.