Total desalination of brackish water

With desalination of brackish water far inland, the discharge of the concentrated brine which -is -inevitably produced as a by-product by all the desalination processes may pose a serious problem.

Deep well injection and discharge into rivers can be a solution in many cases. These methods however have serious disadvantages with respect to ecology and a pipeline to the sea can only be considered for shorter distances.

As an alternative, a hybrid plant consisting of a Reverse-Osmosis unit and a crystallization section has been studied. Such a combination converts brackish water into fresh water and a crystal sludge which can be either stored or treated for further use. Because of the scale-forming substances in brackish water, only modified crystallization processes can be employed as second stage of the hybrid plant. In this study, two versions are discussed: agitated thin-film evaporators and a modified MSF-process employing oil as a heat-carrier.

Cost figures for the total process will be given and the sensibility of the fresh-water-price to variations of the main parameters like capacity, fuel price etc. will be discussed.