Hi theseekers-ga,
Thanks for narrowing down your question. Here's some information on
desalination. I hope it is of help to you.
DESALINATION TECHNIQUES
Fresh water may be obtained from sea water in a number of ways. The
underlying process for all desalination is extracting or separating
water molecules from the salts, ions, metals, and other ingredients
that make up salt water. Nature performs this feat continuously. Sea
water evaporates, rises into the atmosphere, cools, falls as rain and
enters fresh water rivers, lakes and reservoirs.
Artificial desalination can occur by mimicking nature, that is by
using evaporated water (heat-bases processes), or by forcing the
issue and chemically separating water from sea salts and other
minerals (membrane-based processes).
The evaporation technique used in desalination is distillation. There
are a number of distillation processes, of which the most common are:
-. Multiple Effect Evaporation (ME) and Multistage Flash Evaporation
(MSF) which involve boiling the salt water and use heat-exchange
tubes to effect the releaser of water;
-Vapor Compression (VC) in which water vapor is collected and
compressed;
-solar distillation in which water is collected in a greenhouse-type
structure, condenses on the cooler inside surface of the glass, and is
collected s it runs down the glass.
MSF distillation is most commonly used, but multiple-effect distillers
are becoming increasingly competitive for small and medium-size
applications."
<http://www.commonwealthknowledge.net/Desalntn/binfdsal.htm>
Membrane techniques include Reverse Osmosis, Electrodialysis, or Ion
Exchange.
Reverse Osmosis (RO) puts salty water to one side of a semi-permeable
membrane where it is subjected to pressures of 800 to 1,200 LB/sq. in.
for seawater. “Pure” water will diffuse through the membrane leaving
behind a salty concentrate containing most of the dissolved organic
and inorganic contaminants.
With Electrodialysis salt water is pumped between many flat, parallel,
membranes in a stack. Some membranes let pass positive charged ions,
some negative. A charge is applied leaving partially desalted water
between each set of membranes
In Ion Exchange salt and mineral ions in salty water are "traded" for
desirable ions of fresh water through granular chemicals called ion
-exchange resins.
Reverse Osmosis is far and away the most common separation technique
used today for desalination.
COSTS
There are many ways to break down costs for building, operating and
maintaining a desalination facility. Total costs is one way, costs
per unit of product is another.
Using a total figure, the Monterrey Water Management District has
broken down its costs for three facilities as follows:
A 3 million gallon/day plant: facility: $29.2 million; operation and
maintenance $2.1 million for seasonal operation
A 6mpd plant: capital costs 53.2 million; operation and management
$3.9 million seasonal
A 7-14 mpd plant: Desalination facility: $72.0-171.3 million; op and
maintenance $4.6-9.3 for seasonal operation
<http://www.mpwmd.dst.ca.us/seir/dap/t_a-_7.htm>
A breakdown per unit of water obtained is offered by the Encyclopedia
of Desalination and Water Resources. They show the average cost of
desalination, among all types of facilities throughout the world, to
be $1.50 to $3.00 per cubic meter (equivalent to about $5.70-11.30
per 1000 gallons). An installation (again among all types) would add
an additional $1.00 to the cost.
<http://www.desware.net/desware/desa9.asp>
The above costs compare most unfavorably to the costs of water at, for
example, the Tampa Bay, Florida facility. This is a huge desalination
effort in which the costs have been estimated at only $2.02/1000
gallons.
<http://www.poseidonhb.com/news/news02.html>
Tampa Bay is mentioned here to show economies of scale. The smaller
scale will always be very expensive.
A comparison by the UN Environmental Program of desalination costs in
island states around the globe found a wide range of costs ranging
from cents per cubic meter to $5 - $6/cubic meters. Most of these were
reverse osmosis types of process.
ISSUES
To desalinate or to pipe in fresh water is a question of need, costs,
and the environment
Need, of course, must be determinedf locally. Costs may be balanced
against environment. The process that uses solar power to heat and
distill sea water is also the most expensive in capital outlay and
maintenance costs. These range from $50 to $80 per 1,000 gallons of
final water product.(Compare Reverse Osmosis or Multiflash
Distillation at about $9.80/1000 gallons)
I hope this has beedn helpful to you.
All the best.
Alanna-ga |
