Water. desalination + reuse

DWR MayJune 2015

Water. Desalination + reuse

Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/513849

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 31 of 44

RESEARCH May-June 2015 | Desalination & Water Reuse | 31 | Researchers from the Melbourne School of Engineering at the University of Melbourne have developed what they claim to be a membrane fi ltration system that outstrips existing technology on energy effi ciency with negligible compromise on performance. Working with in Australia's Commonwealth Scientifi c and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), the Melbourne researchers have produced a micro fi ltration pretreatment membrane that makes it possible to deploy chlorine disinfection to decrease membrane fouling by bacteria and other microbes (biofouling) without incurring membrane damage. According to Professor Sandra Kentish, professor of Melbourne University's Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, it has not, Chlorine resistance ups membrane effi ciency Abu Dhabi university, Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, has unveiled recently its research collaboration with three leading energy and clean technology corporations in a research project supporting the development of a full-scale, completely solar-powered, seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination plant in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The institute's partners in the collaboration include Masdar - Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, which works to develop and invest in renewable and clean energy in Abu Dhabi; GDF Suez subsidiary, Laborelec – a research centre and technical service provider specializing in power technology and sustainable energy; and water treatment and services provider, Suez Environnement subsidiary, Degrémont. President, of the Masdar Institute, Dr Fred Moavenzadeh, said the partners, "hope to leverage our renewable energy experience and expertise to produce a cutting-edge SWRO plant powered exclusively by renewable energy." He added: "This research will help bring the UAE closer to its goal of producing a greater proportion of its electricity from renewable energy and will contribute signifi cantly to the UAE's research and development expertise." The UAE derives most of its potable water from desalination thst is driven by electricity from gas-fi red power plants that produce nearly one third of the UAE's greenhouse gas emissions. The parties will jointly work to develop an optimized design of a solar energy-powered SWRO desalination plant. They will then attempt to demonstrate, according to the particular conditions of a selected UAE site, the ability to produce the required quality and quantity of fresh water on a large scale. The project is part of a June 2014 contract between Degrémont and the Masdar Institute. Masdar Institute and Degrémont collaborate in renewable desalinatio n Nutrients make desalination more appetizing to farmers to date, been viable to add chlorinating agents to water to prevent biological growth ahead of desalination. "Such biofouling has been a major issue to date, but the new membranes have the potential to lead to a more economic desalination operation," Kentish said. She said her team's chlorine-resistant membrane design performs "at a comparable level to existing commercial membranes used in these applications." She added: "But importantly, they show greater resistance to attack by chlorine- containing chemicals." The layered assembly of the new membrane materials can reduce costs by cutting out additional processing steps according to Kentish. "They can also prevent the decrease in water fl ow that is currently observed with time due to biological fouling," she said. Scientists at Australia's Centre for Studies in Reverse Osmosis (CSIRO) have found that the addition of nutrients could make desalinated water more fi nancially attractive to farmers. "Desalination technology is considered to be an expensive option," said CSIRO Land and Water principal research scientist Dr Olga Barron. "For every crop you might have specifi c needs for certain minerals and certain fertilizers, so you can introduce [these], and when you use [nutrient-added] water, you actually use less to improve the quality and productivity of agriculture," she added. The researchers' investigation into whether groundwater desalination technologies could generate cost-effective water supplies at agricultural sites across Australia revealed cost to be the main limiting factor in the use of desalination for agriculture. Fewer than 10% of possible sites were found to be likely to be supplied with desalinated water for less than A$ 1 a kilolitre. Barron said many farmers currently paid just 20 cents a kilolitre for water, and were unlikely to pay more than A$ 1.20 a kilolitre. In determining probable costs, the study, funded by Australia's National Centre for Excellence in Desalination, included the distance from agricultural land and towns, the number of bores required at groundwater sites, bore installation and maintenance costs, and the cost of disposing of the by- product brine. According to Barron desalinated water needed to improve farming effi ciencies, or come with something extra to make it more cost-effective, such as adding and nutrients to improve crop production. Barron said desalinated water could be conditioned with minerals and nutrients at the same time it is treated. She said the research revealed an opportunity for someone in the agricultural industry to develop infrastructure to support the sale of nutrient-added agricultural water. "[If ] you use less water and produce much higher quality agricultural product, it's actually offsetting the cost of desalination," Barron said.

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Water. desalination + reuse - DWR MayJune 2015