• We have seen that the distribution of water resources in the world has a

wide temporal and spatial variation. Some twenty-six countries, including

eleven in Africa and nine in the middle east, already face severe water
shortage. In some cases, a liter of bottled water cost 4-5 times that of a
liter petrol.

• The fresh water scarcity, which is going to be severe in coming years, has
to be tackled from both sides:
a) Supply side by augmentation of fresh-water resources and try to be
cope with the increasing demand; and
b) Demand side, by managing demand, i.e., by managing the
consumptive use through increasing efficiency of supply, curtailing
extravagant uses and reducing losses
i. Creations of new fresh-water resources
ii. Rain water harvesting
iii. Reclamation and reuse of water
iv. Reduction in water losses
v. Transfer of water from surplus areas to deficit areas
vi. Some unconventional methods
a) Desalination
Desalination is a process of removing dissolved minerals
(including but not limited to salts) and other impurities
from seawater, brackish water of treated waste water to
produce usable water
Desalination Methods:
i. Distillation (Distillation of sea water has been
practiced for many years. Over 60 percent of the
world’s desalted water is produced with heat to distil
fresh water from sea water. The saline water is heated
to the boiling point to produce the maximum amount of
water vapour)
ii. Membrane Processes ( In nature, membranes play an
important role in the separation of salts. This includes
both the processes of dialysis and osmosis that occur
in the body. Membranes are used in two commercially
important desalting processes:
• Electrodialysis
• Reverse osmosis

iii. Freezing (The temperature of sea water is gradually

lowered, till ice crystals are formed. These are free of
salts and can be separated from brine. This is,
however, still a costlier metod)
The common element in distillation and membrane process:
a) Production of a concentrate stream
Also called brine, reject or a waste stream. This stream contains
the salts removed from the saline water and some of the
chemicals that might have been added during the processes

b) Disposal
Disposal of this waste water in an environmentally appropriate
manner forms an important part of the feasibility and operation
of a desalination plant. If the plant is located near the sea,
concentrate is disposed off in the sea.
a) The energy used in the desalination process is primarily
electricity and heat
b) Energy requirements depend on the salinity and temperature
of feed water, the quality of the water produced, and the
desalting technology used
c) Estimates for electricity-use requirements for various
technologies for seawater desalination are (CCC 2008): (1)
Multistage Flash (MSF): 260-530 kWh/ML; (2) Multiple Effect
distillation (MED): 190-380 kWh/ML; (3) Vapour Compression
(VC): 750-1,130kWh/ML; (4) Reverse Osmosis (RO)-single
pass: 440-830kWh/ML, and (5) Reverse Osmosis (RO)-double
pass: 490-900kWh/ML.
d) In addition to electricity requirements, MSF, MED, and some
VC plants also use thermal energy to heat feed water.
a) Desalination facilities exist in about 120 countries around the
world

b) The capital and operating costs for desalination, which have

been decreasing over the years, depend on capacity and type
of plant, plant location, feed-water quality, labour cost,
energy cost, financing cost, ease of concentrate disposal,
level of instrumentation/automation, and plant reliability.

c) The production costof a brackish-water desalination plant is

about 10 to 15 Rs/kL, of seawater desalination plant is about
40 o 50 Rs/kL, depending upon the total dissolved solids
(TDS) load in the effluent stream.
The ADVANTAGES of distillation plants over REVERSE
OSMOSIS (RO) plants are:
a) Distillation plants have a greater potential for economies
of scale
b) Even though distillation plants may require shutdown for
tube bundle replacement and cleaning; they require much
less shutdown as compared to RO plants
c) Distillation plants require less pre-treatment as compared
to RO plants, which require coagulants to settle out
particles before water passes through the membranes
d) Unlike RO plants, distillation plants do not generate
waste from backwash of pre-treatment filters
The ADVANTAGES of RO plants over DISTILLATION
plants are:
a) RO-plant feed-water generally does not require heating, so
the thermal impacts of discharges from RO plants are
lower
b) RO plants have fewer problems with corrosion
c) RO plants usually have lower energy requirements
d) RO plants tend to have higher recovery rates, about 45
percent for seawater
e) RO process can remove harmful contaminants such as
trihalomethane-precursors, pesticides, and bacteria
f) RO plants require less surface area than distillation plants
for the same amount of water production
• Large-scale desalination requires large amounts of energy
and specialized expensive infrastructure, making it very
costly compared to fresh water from rivers or groundwater.
• Because of large energy reserves of the Middle Eastern
countries and relative scarcity of fresh water, there are many
desalination plants in this region
• There are more than 13,000 desalination plants in the world,
providing 45 million m3 of fresh water per day