Fundamentals of Salt Water Desalination

Book excerpt: Industrial desalination of sea and brackish water is becoming an essential part in providing sustainable sources of fresh water for a larger number of communities around the world. Desalination is a main source of fresh water in the Gulf countries, a number of the Caribbean and Mediterranean Islands, and several municipalities in a large number of countries. As the industry expands there is a pressing need to have a clear and well-written textbook that focuses on desalination fundamentals and other industrial aspects.This book focuses on the processes widely used in industry, which include multistage flash desalination and reverse osmosis. Also, other desalination processes with attractive features and high potential are featured. It includes a large number of solved examples, which are explained in simple and careful matter that allow the reader to follow and understand the development. The data used in the development of the examples and case studies are extracted from existing desalination plants.This title also includes comparisons of model predictions against results reported in literature as well as available experimental and industrial data. Several industries include similar unit operation processes, i.e., evaporators, condensers, flashing units, membrane separation, and chemical treatment. Examples of such industries include wastewater treatment, food, petroleum, petrochemical, power generation, and pulp and paper. Process fundamentals and design procedures of such unit processes follow the same procedures given in this textbook.