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Documentos de Profesional
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54
R. Semiat 55
branes. Membranes are sensitive to changes in pH, small erties, the degree of water recovery, and proper system
concentrations of oxidized substances like chlorine and design. Some relatively small molecules like carbon di-
chlorine oxides, a wide range of organic materials, and oxide, hydrogen sulfide, silica, and boric acid may pen-
the presence of algae and bacteria. Therefore, careful pre- etrate and pollute the water product. These problems can
treatment is needed in order to prevent membrane con- be solved either by aerating, using ion-exchanger and/or
tamination and fouling: pre-filtration to remove suspended mixing the water to change the content, and dilute con-
solids from feed water; dosage of acid (hydrochloric or centration. Small organic compounds dissolved in the feed
sulfuric) to remove bicarbonate ions, followed by aera- water may also find their way to the product water. Prod-
tion to remove carbon dioxide; and filtration by active uct quality is fair. It depends on feed quality (brackish or
carbon to remove dissolved organic materials and chlo- seawater); salt content may vary between 100 to 600 ppm
rine compounds. Different anti-scalants are used in order of total dissolved solids (TDS). This can be improved by
to prevent precipitation of dissolved salts due to increased using a secondary stage, which will increase the cost sig-
concentration. These are efficient against precipitation of nificantly, but is useful in cases where ultra-pure water is
CaCO3, CaSO4, SrSO4, BaCO3, but are less effective in needed.
the case of silica precipitation. The RO technique is used usually for small and large
In order to allow the best ratio of the membrane area plants, amounting to about 22 percent of the worlds larger
to operation volumes, two most convenient designs are plants of capacity above 4,000m3/day (Wangnick, 1996).
made to fit the pressure vessels: spiral-wound and hol- RO systems can easily be integrated within other thermal
low-fibers membranes. Figure 1 shows a schematic pre- desalination technologies, namely hybrid systems for ef-
sentation of an RO desalination plant. The process takes ficient water production.
place in ambient temperature. The only electrical energy Electro-Dialysis (ED), or the more modern Revers-
required is for pumping the water to a relatively high op- ible Electro-Dialysis (EDR), in which ions are forced to
erating pressure. The use of special turbines may reclaim pass by means of DC electrical power through semi-per-
part of the energy. Operating pressures vary between 10 meable membranes into concentrated streams leaving
25 bars for brackish water and 5080 bars for seawater. behind dilute salt solutions, were considered to be a prom-
High pressure is needed to allow sufficient perme- ising technique. This was mainly attributed to the rela-
ation at relatively high concentrations of the concentrat- tive insensitivity of the membranes for fouling, and due
ing brine along the membrane axis located in the pressure to the thermodynamic transfer properties of this technique.
vessel. Water conversion can go as high as 9095 percent Unfortunately, the technique did not succeed in taking
in the case of light brackish water, down to 35 to 50 per- the naturally expected position among other processes.
cent recovery in the case of seawater. Low recovery is Currently, the technique is in use mainly for brackish water
obtained especially in a relatively closed sea, like the Red desalination and water purification (Thampy et al., 1999).
Sea or the Persian Gulf. Nano-filtration (NF) membranes are used to partly
Increased water temperature, up to the membrane remove heavy salts from water (Hassan et al., 1998). Ul-
limitation, also increases flux through the membranes. tra-filtration (UF) is the modern solution for removing
This calls for increased efficiency by using hot seawater bacteria and viruses from water. Micro-filtration (MF)
flowing from the cooling system of a large power plant. membranes are used for removal of suspended particles
The water quality depends on membrane rejection prop- and may provide good protection against Giardia and
Post Treatment
Low pressure pump Pre-treatment
Membranes
Product
Tank
Energy
recovery
Feed water turbine
Product water
Cryptosporidium as well as most viruses. EDR membranes energy, as sensible heat and pumping. Increasing energy
are usually used to remove special salts like nitrates from efficiency is a function of the number of stages involved,
waters. Some of the above mentioned membranes are used highest temperature of the preheated feed seawater, bet-
for pretreatment of polluted waters before RO desalina- ter heat transfer at the condensing vapor, better utiliza-
tion. Membrane processes gradually take their position tion of the heat rejected with the product and the rejected
in water quality, wastewater reclamation, cleaning of in- brine, controlling and preventing scale formation, preven-
dustrial waste solutions, etc. (Gagliardo et al., 1998; tion of accumulated non-condensable gases, etc. Corro-
Johnson et al., 1997). sion is associated with the highest temperatures, existence
of dissolved oxygen in the water, and the choice of mate-
Thermal Desalination rials for heat transfer surfaces.
Multi-Stage Flash The process is not very sensitive to the initial con-
The MSF distillation is currently the most common centration of seawater. It is also not sensitive to suspended
and simple technique in use. It has operated commercially particles, and a simple straining-filtration technique is
for more than 30 years (Awerbuch, 1997b). Figure 2 shows suitable. Acid and/or anti-scalants may be added to feed
a schematic presentation of an MSF desalination plant. water for controlling scale precipitation. This is also an
Pressurized sea water flows through closed pipes where important advantage of the process over other distillation
it exchanges heat, with vapor condensing in the upper processes, since scale does not precipitate on heat trans-
sections of the flash chambers. Water is then heated to a fer surfaces but within the chambers. Biocides are also
certain initial high temperature, using burnt fuel or exter- used as a pretreatment to prevent microbiological activ-
nal steam, and this allows flashing along the lower part of ity. De-aeration is needed to remove oxygen and to re-
the chambers, from chamber to chamber under reduced duce the possibility of non-condensing gas accumulation.
pressure conditions. Vapor generated is allowed to flow The described pre-treatments are also suitable for most
through a mist eliminator to meet the condensing tubes, of the other evaporative desalination techniques.
where heat is transferred to the heating feed seawater. The product of this technique has the common ad-
The condensate drips into collectors and is pumped out vantage of most evaporation techniques water produced
as the plant product. Exhausted brine, concentrated in salt, with about 50 ppm of TDS, due to drops carried by vapor.
is pumped out and rejected to the sea. It is possible to produce better quality water, down to 10
Part of the brine is recirculated with the feed in order ppm TDS. The by-product is aggressive and can cause
to increase water recovery. The technique consumes high corrosion. It is usually mixed with another source of wa-
Steam Preatreatment
heater of sea-water feed
Condensate collection trays
Vacuum
System
Primary
steam
source
ter to control salt concentration and prevent corrosion. District, in cooperation with IDE Technologies LTD, Par-
sons and Reynolds Metals (Dean et al., 1995a, 1995b;
Multi-Effect Distillation Pepp et al., 1997; Weinberg and Ophir, 1997). The de-
MED is one of the most promising evaporation tech- sign is based on 30 stages of vertical fluted tubes, located
niques existing today (Awerbuch, 1997b; Ophir and in a tall concrete tower. Seawater evaporates on the in-
Weinberg, 1997). The concept of multi-stage evaporation side surfaces of the tubes; as water falls down, the steam
is common in the chemical industry. It has been used for condenses on the outer side of the tubes. Feed water flows
many years for solution concentration, crystallization, upward, using a single pump, in a different section be-
solution purification, etc. The process has been used for tween the tubes where part of the vapor is used to heat the
seawater desalination for the last 25 years. Basically, the water while rising. The higher temperature is obtained as
method can use low-temperature, low-pressure steam as in the MSF system, by using external heat. Using the right
the main energy source. Steam from burnt coal or fuel combination of tube materials for high and low tempera-
can be used, as well as spent steam emerging at the outlet tures, combining low cost aluminum as doubly fluted
of a steam-operated power station. tubes, may reduce the area needed for heat transfer with
The primary steam is used to evaporate heated sea- low corrosion problems. The schematics of this design
water and to generate more steam at a lower pressure, are shown in Figure 4. The designers claim to be able to
while the primary steam condensate is taken back to the produce freshwater at a cost of $0.5/m3, maintaining a
generation chamber, or to the steam generator of the power performance ratio as high as 24.
station. The secondary steam generated goes into a sec- The number of stages is essential for returning better
ond stage to condense while transferring the latent heat to energy utilization. In cases where low-cost heat at lower
low-temperature seawater, flowing in falling film. The temperature is available, optimization of operation con-
process is repeated as many times as the design permits, ditions may lead to a lower number of stages. A low tem-
between the upper possible temperature and the lower perature operation yields the ability to use low-cost
possible cooling temperature, which depends on seawa- materials without exposure to severe corrosion problems,
ter temperature. The condensate is accumulated stagewise while improving plant reliability. The efficiency of the
as the product water. A vacuum pump takes the remain- process is also bound by high values of boiling point el-
ing vapor after the last condensation stage, to maintain evation at high concentrations.
the gradual pressure gradient inside the vessel. Figure 3 Unlike the MSF technique where water is produced
describes the schematics of Horizontal Tubes MED unit. mainly by turning sensible heat into latent heat of evapo-
MED operates usually on horizontal or vertical pipes ration, the MED technique uses latent heat to produce
where steam condenses on one side of the heat transfer secondary latent heat in each section. The efficiency of
surface while seawater evaporates on the other. This uses production that may be obtained from a unit of feed wa-
a double film condensing-evaporating heat transfer mecha- ter is essentially higher than that in the case of MSF dis-
nism that is highly effective. Usually, eight to 16 stages tillation.
are common in such operations. This allows a good per- Different designs like a co-current or counter-current
formance ratio, namely the ratio of tons of water produced flow of seawater against the direction of the produced
per ton of initial steam. The ratio in MED can go up to steam, can be found. These designs are also different in
15, while the corresponding ratio for MSF unit is limited the path of the circulating brine in connection with the
to 10. Recently, a new design was proposed based on the curves of calcium sulfate hydrates saturation vs. tempera-
vertical tower, initiated by the South California Water ture. Co-current operation is convenient since the satura-
Vacuum
System
Product
Primary
Steam Source
Brine
Disposal brine
circulation
Preatreatment
of sea-water feed
used small scales, and mainly because people tend to for- a single commercial desalination plant was not based on
get the old proposals and re-invent the wheel. The solar any other source of energy.
desalination still is not completely under this category, Many researchers and organizations try to relate de-
namely, the use of a transparent cover to allow sun radia- salination to renewable energy sources, nuclear energy,
tion to heat directly a layer of water at the bottom of the solar energy, wind, etc. This tendency increases due to
still. Water evaporates and the vapor rises to condense on the current trend to reduce atmosphere emission of CO2
the cover. Condensing vapor accumulates as the product. from burnt fuel, in a goodwill to minimize the greenhouse
One of the serious disadvantages of the solar still is that it effect. This is also an important issue that needs to be
needs about 250 m2 to produce 1 m3 of freshwater per examined, but not at the expense of the desalination pro-
day. This makes it inefficient even for the deserted arid cesses. The combination of the search for new forms of
zones, as this form of energy is available only one-third energy and desalination is fatal for the latter and will cause
or one-fourth of the time. Different techniques are in use many delays in utilizing the proper techniques.
to enhance evaporation in order to reduce the ground area No doubt more effort should be devoted towards the
needed. Another form of solar energy that has been use of renewable sources of energy. The real test, how-
checked in the recent past is the solar pond, which may ever, for any new source of energy is its acceptance of
provide heat at a level of 90°C, or close. This method, electricity production or other common use of energy.
based on a highly concentrated salt solution at the bottom Saving on CO2 emissions needs to be made on other forms
of the pond that absorbs sunlight and does not mix with of energy uses and not on such a delicate issue as desali-
the upper layer of the diluted water solution, suffers from nation for freshwater production. Using nuclear energy,
many technical problems as well as from low heat effi- which is currently more expensive than fossil energy, is
ciency. dangerous in areas where political instabilities exist. It is
Solar cells can be used to supply electricity to run a also problematic where technology is not accessible and
VC or RO unit. There are different types of energy col- must relayed to imported, trained, and sophisticated man-
lectors, viz steam-producing parabolic mirrors, hot oil col- power. Photo-voltaic cells need not only a large invest-
lectors, or chemical storage furnaces. Solar energy is ment but also a large collecting area.
expensive and therefore not normally used for electricity There is a claim to benefit from the day-night, sum-
production. This is the main reason why it was not used mer-winter electricity production cycle, namely to pro-
in water desalination techniques. Without major improve- duce desalinated water during the night when lower power
ments, solar techniques can only survive at low produc- is consumed. The main disadvantage is that the desalina-
tion scales in rare conditions, such as for desert tion equipment will be idle a large percentage of the time.
communities, where no access to electricity increases the This is wrong, since as in any modern plant, production
cost of water production or transportation. costs are higher if the equipment is not in full use. In other
Another promising technique is the freezing method, words, an efficient desalination plant needs to be oper-
referred to for producing water by precipitation of ice from ated around the clock, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,
solution, usually by extraction vapor. The ice formed is with exceptions for maintenance only. During this time,
free of salts, remaining in the mother liquor. The process it needs a full supply of energy, at the lowest cost.
can take place close to the triple point where vapor, liq- Since energy is so important in desalination, a few
uid, and ice may coexist. This was implemented with water directions on possible energy usage may significantly re-
vapor as well as with low vapor pressure organic solvents duce desalination costs.
at low temperatures. The freezing technique was proven Use of spent energy from large steam power plants:
recently as an adequate technique for a high-capacity ice the dual cycle. Every steam cycle power station purges
machine for large cooling and air-conditioning systems. large amount of energy at the condensing stage right after
Different techniques of water extraction using organic the turbine. This heat may be combined with a thermal
solvents, low vapor pressure solvents for freezing, pro- desalination technique in order to supply the primary
duction of clathrates, removal of water from humid air, steam, as in MSF and MED (Awerbuch, 1997b). The prob-
etc., did not make it either. lem is that efficient power stations release the exhausted
steam at around 3540ºC, which is too low for the proper
operation of the desalination plant. Instead, it is possible
Energy Aspects to release the steam at elevated pressure and temperature,
Optimization of a stand-alone desalination plant yields using back-pressure turbines, that will fit the desalination
a relative cost of energy in the range of 30 to 50 percent plant needs. This will cause some loss of production on
of the produced water cost. This depends on the cost of the power generation side. This calls for integration and
energy on the spot, either as electricity or as heat. At a optimization of the two processes together, which are very
regular cost of electricity, for example, processes using difficult to perform if two different authorities are involved
mainly electrical power will consume the lowest avail- for power and water production (El-Nashar, 1997). This
able energy cost, like energy from fossil fuel. This is why type of hybridization was successfully employed in for
Persian Gulf countries when the same authority controlled so solids may be stored properly inland. This solution may
the two industries. be performed by solar ponds or by forced evaporation
Desalination dedicated power plants. In order to best using available heat sources. The process is expensive,
utilize the energy, it is better to operate a dedicated power but the basis for comparison is the cost of brine transpor-
station that can produce electricity and heat. The heat, tation to the nearest possible authorized area, taking into
either in the form of rejected steam or hot gases, can be account the influence of this treatment on the product cost.
used for thermal desalination, while electricity produc-
tion can serve either large RO units or several VC units
(Awerbuch, 1997a). This mix of such processes in desali-
Quality of Water Produced
nation is called the hybrid process, and it is common in Water produced by the different techniques mentioned
the chemical industry. Such a dedicated power station can varies significantly in quality. Thermal processes may
produce electricity at lower, reliable costs. The total wa- produce water containing five to 50 ppm of TDS, similar
ter production cost will be reduced significantly. in composition to the feed seawater. The RO product may
Increase production scale and maintain the best en- contain 300 to 500 ppm of TDS, basically NaCl and a
ergy utilization schemes. This is always true, yet needs to smaller portion of other salts. Some minor constituents
be emphasized. as boric acid, hydrogen sulfide, and CO2 can also be
present in the product, depending on the composition of
the feed water, but may be removed by adequate post-
Environmental Aspects treatment. It is important to mention that feed water con-
Desalination processes may be characterized by their taining dissolved volatile organic compounds will generate
effluent to the environment, the air, the nearby land, and water contaminated with the same components, unless
to the seas. Desalination is dependent on energy and usu- special care is taken. This is true for RO and evaporation
ally uses fossil energy. All types of air pollution associ- techniques.
ated with energy production, namely emission of NOx, The product water is aggressive, tends to corrode iron
SO2, volatile compounds, particulate, CO2 and water ex- pipes, and dissolves protective layers containing calcium
ist here as well, either by using electricity produced by a and other salts on the inner sides of the mains. The water
conventional power station or by using a dedicated power needs, therefore, post-treatment that usually includes an
station. increase in the pH level, addition of Ca (to the level of
Effluents of desalination plants contain relatively about 100 ppm as CaCO3) and alkalinity, namely HCO3-
highly concentrated water, which depends on the water (also to a level of about 100 ppm as CaCO3), according to
recovery from the feed brine. In the case of seawater de- local water regulations.
salination, rejected brine is concentrated close to twice
the original sea water solution. The concentrate also con-
tains chemicals used in the pretreatment of the feed wa-
Desalination Techniques for Water Quality
ter. The latter may contain low concentrations of The development of membrane modules gave a boost
anti-scalants, surfactants, and acid. To this may be added to the use of membranes in water purification and treat-
occasional washing solutions or rejected backwash slur- ment. Wilbert et al. (1998) described various treatments
ries from feed water. In small operation scales, the prob- available for surface water and other sources. Nano-fil-
lem is mild and no serious damage may affect the marine tration membranes are used for the removal of hardness
life. In large scales of water production, the problem is a from drinking water (Bergman, 1995; Hassan et al., 1998a,
little more severe; however, dilution and spreading of ef- 1998b). They can also be used to remove some other un-
fluents may solve the problem. Natural chemicals that do wanted dissolved species, even partial removal of nitrates
not harm the environment will probably replace the added from ground water. Ultra-filtration and micro-filtration
chemicals in the future. can be back-washed occasionally to remove accumulated
The more serious problems are those concentrates solids from the membranes. While MF can be used to
produced inland, in cases of brackish water desalination. remove micron size and upper suspended particles, namely
The concentrate composition in these is not similar to bacteria, algae, etc., UF membranes can also be used to
seawater composition. In most cases the solution contains remove most of the viruses found in surface water. In fact,
more calcium and magnesium, and sometimes other com- the solid layer, the cake that adheres to the membranes
ponents are involved, depending on the composition at in the last two techniques, acts like a dynamic membrane
the source. The problem is less severe when the solutions and removes smaller particles even at a level of colloids
are purged into the open sea. Where no access to the sea and viruses. The use of MF membranes might be cheaper
is possible, the concentrate may increase groundwater than sand filtration in the treatment of surface water.
salinity if allowed to penetrate the earth. A possible solu- Lyonnaise Des Eaux, the international water company,
tion to that problem includes zero discharge treatment, uses UF membranes combined with active coal and sedi-
namely evaporative separation between solids and water, mentation stages to purify polluted Seine water for drink-
Relative price
0.6
branes to meet their needs.
0.4
Uses for Sewage Treatment
Membranes penetrate also into wastewater treatment. 0.2
Many projects at a pilot stage use membranes to treat the
water (Gagliardo et al., 1998). In some cases MF mem-
branes are directly used on strained wastewater to remove 0
1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000
suspended particles that are too large for the gap between Year
two membranes (Johnson et al., 1997). The treated water
Figure 6. Cost trend of spiral-wound membranes modules.
is transferred directly to RO membranes to remove salts.
Permeate is usually allowed to pass across active coal in
order to remove remaining dissolved organic materials. 8000
In other cases RO membranes are used to treat effluent
Installation costs $/m3/day 1,200- 2,300 900- 660 950- 700- 1,000-
1,500 1,000 1,000 900 1,350
1
Retubing allowence
3%
Maintenance parts & supplies 0.9
1% Chemicals
0.6
0.5
trated brine that contains usable water. In other words, creasing water recovery is therefore a key for reducing
increasing the efficiency of the process by increasing the water production costs. Operation of systems with un-
recovery ratio is a key factor in major cost reduction. trained, inexperienced workers increases the need for ex-
The analysis of a desalination performance is com- pensive safety factors, like extra pre-treatments.
plicated due to the many parameters involved. Examina- Better-trained operators and more sophisticated automa-
tion of operated systems (Leitner, 1995) can make the tion and control may result in lower cost of water produc-
best and accurate analyses. However, most producers are tion.
not willing to release this information. A good estimation The VC and MED techniques produce better water
may also be obtained from open contests on large projects. quality than the RO process. The two techniques need
Figure 10 presents an analysis made by the four runner- further development, to improve heat transfer surfaces,
up bidders at the Tampa-Bay project (Leitner, 1998b). reduce equipment size, and improve energy efficiency.
This is a good demonstration of the effect of plant size on Again, more research work is needed.
the production costs. It is clear that the larger the plant The energy question is very important, not only for
size, the lower will be the price the consumer will have to desalination but also for future general energy needs, and
pay. in terms of environmental problems. It is necessary, there-
fore, to continue with international efforts toward revolu-
tionary new renewable sources of energy, which in due
Future Directions time will also be used for desalination.
There is no doubt that desalination techniques even The implementation of water desalination in existing
now being matured to produce water on a commercial water systems is a complicated issue that needs strong,
basis are still climbing on the learning curve. Each new intelligent policies. Needs for new water resources are
development reduces the cost and takes a further step. It severe in many locations on earth on one hand, but the
is important to continue the investment efforts in Research cost is still high in comparison with common water sup-
and Development (R&D) programs in order to continue plies. It is easier to introduce desalinated water into de-
and reduce the cost of water production. The key is to veloped cities where people pay almost threefold or more
invest in new plants, increase the free competitions be- than the cost of desalination for their water uses. Usually
tween producers, and cooperate with research institutes. those locations do not suffer from water scarcity. Water
A few possible directions for future R&D are listed be- is needed in locations where agriculture is still the basis
low. for life, and simple agriculture cannot afford the costs
The mechanism of water transfer and salt rejection in described here. It is a global question of the same type as
RO membranes is not clearly understood. Better under- the usage of energy resources and solutions for environ-
standing at the molecular level will lead to new mem- mental problems. The future of mankind depends on
branes that may show higher fluxes and better salt proper answers related to those questions, together with
rejection. the questions of global peace and human wealth on earth.
It is evident that the most expensive steps in mem- At the moment, without international acts, only local so-
brane operations are independent of water recovery. In- lutions may be given for the water problems.
In the meantime, to summarize and induce a general tems on the supply and demand for water.
framework for possible research directions in different Develop new concepts for optimal desalination-ori-
desalination directions, a methodical evaluation of R&D ented water supply systems.
needs for achieving meaningful desalinated water cost Integration of desalinated water into modern agricul-
reductions is presented below. ture.