Deltares contributes to book about intakes and outfalls for seawater desalination

Published: 3 June 2015

Robin Morelissen, intake and outfall expert at Deltares and Tobias Bleninger, Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR), Curitiba,Brazil, contributed to the book "Intakes and Outfalls for Seawater Reverse-Osmosis Desalination Facilities". Their expertise is summarized in the chapter "Tiered Modeling Approach for Desalination Effluent Discharges". They explain the principle steps to model effluent dispersion in the receiving environment and to improve discharge design and siting. The different modelling tools are described and applied for typical case studies.

Dependence on desalinated water increases

Freshwater supplies are dwindling as global population growth, industrialisation, and agricultural expansion occur worldwide. Desalination of seawater is rapidly becoming a key aspect of global water management to balance the needs of numerous coastal countries, particularly in arid lands and industrialized counties. Saudi Arabia currently produces about 18 % of the global production of desalinated water with an expected capacity of nearly 6 million cubic meters per day in 2015. Over the long term the dependence on desalinated water in the region and much of the world will increase.

Reducing the energy consumption and the environmental impacts

Seawater desalination is an energy-intensive process that has some real and perceived environmental impacts. Therefore, it is important to reduce the energy consumption of desalination, the carbon footprint, the environmental impacts, and the overall cost. Currently, the most energy efficient desalination large-scale commercial process is seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO). Reducing the energy intensity and increase water-use efficiency throughout the life cycle of desalination plants and minimizing environmental impacts are the key issues in this book.

Latest research on intake and outfall design concepts SWRO facilities

The book provides the latest research on intake and outfall design concepts for SWRO facilities. It should be used by design engineers, geologists, project owners, and facility operators for use as a reference and to obtain new ideas that could produce innovative designs that will reduce the energy consumption and operational costs of SWRO facilities. Also, summaries of where additional scientific and engineering research should be conducted to make improvements to intake and outfall performance are included.

The book can be ordered via the Springer website.