DESALINATION    

Desalination is the process of removing dissolved salts from various sources of water including seawater, brackish surface water, brackish groundwater, and reclaim water. Desalinated water can be used for human consumption, industrial applications, and groundwater recharge.

While the history of desalination dates back several thousand years, the modern era of desalination is considered to have begun in the 1950's and 1960's with the development of various types of evaporation processes including multistage flash evaporation (MSF) and multiple effect distillation (MED). The 1970's ushered in advances in desalination using semi-permeable membranes associated with processes such as reverse osmosis (RO), nanofiltration (NF), and electrodialysis reversal (EDR). Greater than 8,000 million gallons per day (mgd) of desalination capacity is installed throughout the world.

A number of innovations and significant developments have contributed to the rapid growth in desalination worldwide:

  • Advancement in desalination technologies

  • Reduction in desalination process component costs

  • Improved and creative project financing models

  • Need for additional water resources

  • Demonstrated feasibility

The staff at AQUAGENICS has been part of the desalination evolution for over a quarter century. During this time the staff has been involved with the design, installation, start-up and operation of a number of worldwide municipal and industrial desalination projects including several first-of-its-kind projects in the United States. The types of services that AQUAGENICS has provided for desalination projects include:

  • Preparation of pilot testing programs for pre-treatment, membrane-based, and post-treatment processes along with the review and analysis of pilot testing findings

  • Preparation and administration of water sampling programs to fully characterize source water quality

  • Development of conceptual process diagrams, facility general arrangements, water balances, and process design summaries

  • Evaluation of desalination process wastewater disposal options. 
  • Development of regional desalination models

  • Development of conceptual process diagrams, facility general arrangements, water balances, and process design summaries

  • Preparation of installed capital and annual O&M cost estimates

  • Expert witness testimony on RO membrane performance

  • Troubleshooting pre-treatment, membrane-based, and post-treatment process issues at operating facilities

  • Permitting support

  • Owner's Engineer review of process flow diagrams, specifications, and performance guarantees
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