Advances in seawater desalination technologies

A number of seawater desalination technologies have been developed during the last several decades to augment the supply of water in arid regions of the world. Due to the constraints of high desalination costs, many countries are unable to afford these technologies as a fresh water resource. However, the steady increasing usage of seawater desalination has demonstrated that seawater desalination is a feasible water resource free from the variations in rainfall. A seawater desalination process separates saline seawater into two streams: a fresh water stream containing a low concentration of dissolved salts and a concentrated brine stream. The process requires some form of energy to desalinate, and utilizes several different technologies for separation. Two of the most commercially important technologies are based on the multi-stage flash (MSF) distillation and reverse osmosis (RO) processes. Although the desalination technologies are mature enough to be a reliable source for fresh water from the sea, a significant amount of research and development (R&D) has been carried out in order to constantly improve the technologies and reduce the cost of desalination. This paper reviews the current status, practices, and advances that have been made in the realm of seawater desalination technologies. Additionally, this paper provides an overview of R&D activities and outlines future prospects for the state-of-the-art seawater desalination technologies. Overall, the present review is made with special emphasis on the MSF and RO desalination technologies because they are the most successful processes for the commercial production of large quantities of fresh water from seawater. © 2008.