What is Desalination?
The world is in need of fresh water. 97% of the water on earth is salted, with an average salinity of 3.5% – way too high for drinking, industry or agriculture. Water is fundamental to life, yet sustainable freshwater resources are increasingly limited in quantity and quality. Population growth, changing water consumption patterns, and climate change threaten our freshwater supplies.
Seawater desalination, the process of removal of salts and dissolved solids from saline water, is an important and vital solution to help combat water scarcity. It is an alternative, feasible and reliable source of water to ensure water sustainability.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF DESALINATION?
Seawater desalination has become the most suitable solution for providing fresh water to serve the continuously growing population and ensure water security. As water desalination plants expand globally, they are required to meet sustainable development goals. When considering desalination, we should weigh critical factors such as location, environmental impact, local regulations, etc.
Seawater desalination by reverse osmosis is the most common and cost-effective technology in the market. Its energy consumption has decreased dramatically and is equitable to the requirements of other water supply schemes such as conveying water large distances, greywater reclamation and deep well pumping.
Recent advancements in desalination technology can reduce costs while dramatically improving performance and reliability. Furthermore, using renewable energies to power desalination processes has given a new outlook to the development of desalination technology. With the growing demand for fresh water, coupled with increasing costs of traditional fresh water sources and new, more stringent drinking water quality regulations, desalination is becoming more and more practical and economical. IDE is leading this industry as it grows, and plays an important role in the future development of life on earth.
IDE - A DESALINATION WORLD LEADER
IDE leads the water industry with some of the world’s most advanced thermal and membrane desalination plants. We have provided small to large cost-effective desalination solutions in over 400 plants in 40 countries, for more than 5 decades. IDE works in partnership with a wide range of customers: municipalities, energy, mining, and power plants, on all aspects of water projects, and delivers approximately 3 million m3/day of high-quality water worldwide
SEAWATER DESALINATION SOLUTIONS
Today there are two main types of desalination technologies: Membrane (RO) and Thermal (MED, MVC and MSF) desalination. Reverse Osmosis (RO) desalination uses the principle of osmosis to remove salt and other impurities, by transferring water through a series of semi-permeable membranes. Thermal desalination uses heat, often waste heat from power plants or refineries, to evaporate and condense water to purify it. In the most advanced desalination plants, such as those built by IDE, water is pretreated to improve the efficiency of the plants.
Each project and customer has its unique requirements and challenges that IDE strives to meet. A variety of factors come into play when selecting the appropriate solution for each situation – the quality of the source water, the required quantity and quality of the water produced, pretreatment, energy requirements and disposal of concentrate
ACHIEVING SUSTAINABLE SEAWATER DESALINATION
As water desalination plants expand globally, they are required to meet sustainable development goals. Our solutions have been designed to alleviate water challenges while minimizing environmental impact, and decreasing our customers’ energy and water footprints. IDE ensures that our plants fit our customers’ economic, environmental, and social plans. We are continuously improving energy efficiency so as to minimize the impact on our surrounding environment. Through continual sustainable thinking and technological advancements, IDE has achieved the industry’s lowest energy consumption for all three dominant desalination technologies and industrial water treatment solutions, while also reducing associated greenhouse gas emissions and waste.
Water solutions for any challenge
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Thermal Solutions
Refineries and power plants generate waste heat. This makes thermal desalination, which uses energy to evaporate water and subsequently condense it again, the most cost-effective solution.
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Membrane Solutions
Municipalities, power, oil & gas, mining, resorts and other industries need clean desalinated water for a huge variety of domestic, industrial and agricultural uses.
Our desalination projects
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Carlsbad Desalination Plant (USA)
Desalination, Reverse Osmosis, SWRO, EP, O&M
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Sorek I Desalination Plant (Israel)
Desalination, Reverse Osmosis, BOT, EPC, O&M, P3, Municipal
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Hadera Desalination Plant (Israel)
Desalination, Reverse Osmosis, BOT,EPC, O&M, P3, Financing, Municipal,
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Cape Preston Desalination Plant (Australia)
Desalination, Reverse Osmosis, EPC&S
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Desalination FAQ
There are approximately 16,000 operational desalination plants, located across 177 countries, which generate an estimated 95 million m3/day of fresh water. Saudi Arabia is the country that relies most on desalination – mostly of seawater. The US is in second place. Per capita SA desalinates more, but the USA desalinates more water overall.
SWRO stands for Seawater Reverse Osmosis, while BWRO stands for Brackish water Reverse Osmosis. S3. Which industries use the most desalinated water?
Desalinated water is a broad term. In general, the power industry and refineries are where it is common to see desalination plants since they are close to the sea and have enough energy to support the desalination process. However, due to new regulations, more and more plants use desalination to reuse their water. They, therefore, provide high-quality water by desalinating treated municipal effluents to industries such as textiles, semiconductors, etc.
Desalinated water is a broad term. In general, the power industry and refineries are where it is common to see desalination plants, since they are close to the sea and have enough energy to support the desalination process. However, due to new regulations, more and more plants use desalination to reuse their water. They therefore, provide high-quality water by desalinating treated municipal effluents to industries such as textile, semiconductors, etc.
The advantage of seawater desalination is that there is no limit to the size of the plant. In addition, proximity to the sea provides an unlimited quantity of feed water and can accept a high amount of concentrated water
A desalination plant is a plant that uses the technology of separating salt from saline water and produces permeate water. This can be done using membrane, distillation, or Ion exchange technology, and more. The most common technology for desalination today is membrane technology.
Contact a desalination expert to learn more about IDE’s desalination plants.
Seawater desalination involves some processes that could impact marine life. However, those impacts can be avoided or minimized by implementing environmental safeguards at every project phase. Therefore, every project needs to have an Environmental Impact Statement.
The cost of desalination can be broken down into the following elements:
- Capital cost (CAPEX) (40 percent)
- Labor (3 percent)
- Membrane replacement (3 percent)
- Maintenance and parts (7 percent)
- Consumables (3 percent)
- Electrical energy (44 percent)
Seawater Desalination has historically been perceived as a more expensive option compared with the traditional treatment of surface or groundwater, . However, one of the latest breakthroughs in desalination has been an improvement in the overall cost, including operational costs (OPEX) and the initial capital expenditure (CAPEX). Very recently, project tenders in Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, and Israel have seen the price fall to the range of $0.50/m3 for the first time.
The average time it takes to design, construct and commission a desalination plant varies by the size, geography and specifics of the plant. For large plants with a capacity of > 100,000 m3/day, 36 to 40 months can be expected. For smaller plants, it’s 15 to 24 months. Again it depends on the complexity of the plant
Wondering how long it took us to build some of our plants? Here are just a few numbers to think about:
- Sorek 1 150 Million cubic m per year -36 months
- Hadera 100 Million cubic m per year 36 months
- Afikey Mayim 6500 cubic m /day 18 months
All desalination technologies have the same byproduct – concentrate or brine. The amount varies depending on the water source being desalinated. Seawater desalination plants discharge more brine – almost 50% of the feed water volume. This is less in brackish water desalination plants -where brine discharged is approximately 15% and 30% of the feed.
Increasing regulatory pressure, growing environmental awareness, and more and larger membrane desalination plants are driving the need for better brine minimization – one of the greatest challenges currently facing the water treatment sector.
The current brine minimization process uses a combination of 3 technologies – reverse osmosis, followed by thermal evaporation, followed by thermal crystallization. There are significant differences in the cost of these technologies.
As with any industrial facility, seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) and brackish water reverse osmosis (BWRO) desalination plants are prone to wear and tear. If not appropriately managed, scaling and fouling are very common issues, leading to membrane clogging and even mechanical failure, affecting the plant’s performance, productivity, and profitability.
IDE’s RO Membrane Management Program (ROMMP) is the best way to keep a constant finger on the plant’s pulse, manage the highest value component of the SWRO system – the RO membranes, and ensure their optimal performance is maintained throughout the operation. Proper operation and maintenance of the RO system are paramount to guaranteeing long-term availability, operational efficiency, and minimal downtime.
IDE plants globally include more than 300,000 installed RO membranes The minimal replacement of membranes in our plants serves as a living testimony to the first-rate maintenance implemented in these plants .
Using the water expertise of IDE Technologies, we identify, develop, design, finance, own, and operate large water infrastructure projects worldwide. With experience dating back to the late 20th century, IDE is a world pioneer in developing PPP projects in the water field. World-class understanding in all disciplines in the water technology market, and unrivalled experience in operation and maintenance of large and complexwater infrastructure projects, allow IDE to optimize the most effective and secured solution to its valued offtakers. A Partnership approach at the forefront of our activities allows efficient risk allocation and the delivery of the most advanced, robust, and most importantly – cost-effective outcome to the of-taker in the shortest possible time.
