Desalination of Seawater—Much Needed Help Worldwide? In 2008 Did Not Obama Say, Began the Rise Of The Oceans Slow, Could He have Been Talking About Desalination of Seawater? With Over 18,000 Desalination Plants Capacity To Produce 31.6 trillion liters of Freshwater Across 150 Countrie? Calling Al Gore? Tell Us Again Rise Of The Oceans, Will Kill Us All? ,

Seawater Desalination Facilities

The world is on the verge of a water crisis. Rainfall shifts caused by climate change plus the escalating water demands of a growing world population threaten society’s ability to meet its mounting needs. By 2025, the United Nations predicts 2.4 billion people will live in regions of intense water scarcity, which may force as many as 700 million people from their homes in search of water by 2030, reports Thomas Sumner. (1)

Population growth is one factor requiring drinking water and sanitation, but there is also the need to produce more food. Agriculture accounts for 70% of water use. (2)

In a search for fresh water, a growing number of countries are turning to desalination. The term is used to refer to removing salt from both seawater and subterranean ‘brackish’ water, as well as the treatment of waster water (sewage) to make it drinkable. (2)

Desalination is a rather simple process.  It involves forcing seawater through a series of filters and membranes to remove sand, sediment, minerals and salt. The concentrated brine residue is discharged back into the ocean where it naturally dilutes.

In 2015, more than 18,000 desalination plants worldwide had the annual capacity to produce 31.6 trillion liters of freshwater across 150 countries. While still less than 1 percent of worldwide freshwater usage, desalination production is two-thirds higher than it was in 2008. Driving the boom is a decades long drop in energy requirements thanks to innovations such as energy efficient water pumps, improved membranes and plant configurations that use outbound water to help pressurize incoming water. Seawater desalination in the 1970s consumed as much as 20 kilowatt-hours of energy per cubic meter of produced fresh water; modern plants typically require just over 3 kilowatt-hours. (1)

The most common form of desalination is reverse osmosis; it involves forcing water though cartridges that contain thin film composite polyamide membranes, which trap salt and other impurities but allow the fresh water through. Advances in manufacturing processes have allowed 450 sq. ft. of membrane to be crammed into each cartridge, compared with 300 sq. ft. when they first came on the market. (2)


here are desalination plants in 120 countries around the world with the most prolific producers being countries in the Middle East (Israel, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Bahrain) and North Africa (Libya and Algeria). (3)

Saudi Arabia is the country that relies moist on desalintion of seawater. The US is in second place.
Carlsbad, CA opened a desalination plant in December 2015. The San Diego County Water Authority calls it ‘the nation’s largest, most technologically advanced energy-efficient seawater desalination plant.’ The entire project cost about $1 billion for the plant, pipelines, and upgrades to existing facilities to use the water. The plant is expected to produce 50 million US gallons of water per day. (4)
On Catalina Island, Southern Californian Edison unveiled the drought proof source of a new desalination plant as a way to avoid asking residents on the island to cut 50 percent of their water usage. The new plant can pump out 125,000 gallons of potable water per day. (5)

There are some 15 new plants in various stages of planning in the US. (6)

Even London now has a seawater desalination plant

Many desalination companies are eying China, which has just 7% of the world’s freshwater but a fifth of its population. About 400 cities face serious water shortages and Beijing aims to quadruple its seawater desalination capacity to 3.6 billion liters a day by 2020. (2)
GE will supply its Procera water filtration equipment package for a seawater desalination plant expansion project in Hato on the Caribbean Island of Bonaire. The plant is responsible for providing clean drinking water for the entire island, which is located about 80 kilometers north of Venezuela. (7)
GE also helped set up Africa’s largest desalination plant in Algiers, Algeria in 2008. It took GE only two years to get the plant up and running on time and on budget, and it is now supplying Algiers with 53 million gallons of drinking water per day. (6)
Another place where GE was instrumental was Australia. They helped bring Australia’s largest seawater desalination into operation. This plant is among the largest reverse osmosis plants in the world. It reached full operation in December 2012, three years after construction began. (8)
References

1. Thomas Sumner, “New desalination tech could help quench global thirst,” Science News, 190, 22, August 20, 2016
2. Chris Johnston, “Desalination: the quest to quench the world’s thirst for water,” the guardian.com, May 27, 2015
3. Brain Sussman, Eco Tyranny, (Washington, DC, WND Books, 2012), Page 203
4. “Carlsbad desalination plant,” en.wikipedia.org, August 18, 2016
5. Greg Lee,”Catalina Island fights drought with new desalination plant,” abc7.com/news, November 30, 2015
6. Rich Smith, “5 desalination companies that could end California’s once-in-500-years drought,” fool.com/investing, March 1, 2014
7. “Caribbean Island of Bonaire expanding drinking water plant with GE’s Procera seawater desalination solutions,” genewsroom.com, July 13, 2015
8. “GE technology helps bring Australia’s largest seawater desalination plant into operation,” waterchronlin.com, February 20, 2013

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