Desalination is a process that removes mineral components from saline water.

More
generally, desalination is the removal of salts and minerals from a substance. [1] One
example is soil desalination. This is important for agriculture. It is possible to desalinate
saltwater, especially sea water, to produce water for human consumption or irrigation. The
by-product of the desalination process is brine.[2] Many seagoing ships
and submarines use desalination. Modern interest in desalination mostly focuses on cost-
effective provision of fresh water for human use. Along with recycled wastewater, it is one
of the few water resources independent of rainfall.[3]

Due to its energy consumption, desalinating sea water is generally more costly than fresh
water from surface water or groundwater, water recycling and water conservation;
however, these alternatives are not always available and depletion of reserves is a critical
problem worldwide.[4][5][6] Desalination processes are using either thermal methods (in the
case of distillation) or membrane-based methods (e.g. in the case of reverse
osmosis).[7][8]: 24

An estimate in 2018 found that "18,426 desalination plants are in operation in over 150
countries. They produce 87 million cubic meters of clean water each day and supply over
300 million people."[8]: 24 The energy intensity has improved: It is now about 3 kWh/m3 (in
2018), down by a factor of 10 from 20–30 kWh/m3 in 1970.[8]: 24 Nevertheless, desalination
represented about 25% of the energy consumed by the water sector in 2016.[8]: 24

History
[edit]
See also: Distillation § Desalination by distillation, and Distilled water § History
Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle observed in his work Meteorology that "salt water,
when it turns into vapour, becomes sweet and the vapour does not form salt water again
when it condenses", and that a fine wax vessel would hold potable water after being
submerged long enough in seawater, having acted as a membrane to filter the salt. [9]

At the same time the desalination of seawater was recorded in China. Both the Classic of
Mountains and Water Seas in the Period of the Warring States and the Theory of the
Same Year in the Eastern Han Dynasty mentioned that people found that the bamboo
mats used for steaming rice would form a thin outer layer after long use. The as-formed
thin film had adsorption and ion exchange functions, which could adsorb salt.[10]

Numerous examples of experimentation in desalination appeared throughout Antiquity

and the Middle Ages,[11] but desalination became feasible on a large scale only in the
modern era.[12] A good example of this experimentation comes from Leonardo da
Vinci (Florence, 1452), who realized that distilled water could be made cheaply in large
quantities by adapting a still to a cookstove.[13] During the Middle Ages elsewhere in
Central Europe, work continued on distillation refinements, although not necessarily
directed towards desalination.[14]

The first major land-based desalination plant may have been installed under emergency
conditions on an island off the coast of Tunisia in 1560.[14][15] It is believed that a garrison of
700 Spanish soldiers was besieged by the Turkish army and that, during the siege, the
captain in charge fabricated a still capable of producing 40 barrels of fresh water per day,
though details of the device have not been reported.[15]

Before the Industrial Revolution, desalination was primarily of concern to oceangoing

ships, which otherwise needed to keep on board supplies of fresh water. Sir Richard
Hawkins (1562–1622), who made extensive travels in the South Seas, reported that he
had been able to supply his men with fresh water by means of shipboard
distillation.[16] Additionally, during the early 1600s, several prominent figures of the era
such as Francis Bacon and Walter Raleigh published reports on desalination.[15][17] These
reports and others,[18] set the climate for the first patent dispute concerning desalination
apparatus. The two first patents regarding water desalination were approved in 1675 and
1683 (patents No. 184[19] and No. 226,[20] published by William Walcot and Robert
Fitzgerald (and others), respectively). Nevertheless, neither of the two inventions entered
service as a consequence of scale-up difficulties.[14] No significant improvements to the
basic seawater distillation process were made during the 150 years from the mid-1600s
until 1800.

When the frigate Protector was sold to Denmark in the 1780s (as the ship Hussaren) its
still was studied and recorded in great detail.[21] In the United States, Thomas
Jefferson catalogued heat-based methods going back to the 1500s, and formulated
practical advice that was publicized to all U.S. ships on the reverse side of sailing
clearance permits.[22][23]

Beginning about 1800, things started changing as a consequence of the appearance of

the steam engine and the so-called age of steam.[14] Knowledge of the thermodynamics of
steam processes[24] and the need for a pure water source for its use in boilers[25] generated
a positive effect regarding distilling systems. Additionally, the spread of European
colonialism induced a need for freshwater in remote parts of the world, thus creating the
appropriate climate for water desalination.[14]

In parallel with the development and improvement of systems using steam (multiple-effect
evaporators), these type of devices quickly demonstrated their desalination potential. [14] In
1852, Alphonse René le Mire de Normandy was issued a British patent for a vertical tube
seawater distilling unit that, thanks to its simplicity of design and ease of construction,
gained popularity for shipboard use.[14] Land-based units did not significantly appear until
the latter half of the nineteenth century.[26] In the 1860s, the US Army purchased three
Normandy evaporators, each rated at 7000 gallons/day and installed them on the islands
of Key West and Dry Tortugas.[14][26][27] Another land-based plant was installed
at Suakin during the 1880s that provided freshwater to the British troops there. It
consisted of six-effect distillers with a capacity of 350 tons/day.[14][26]

After World War II, many technologies were developed or improved such as Multi Effect
Flash desalination (MEF) and Multi Stage Flash desalination (MSF). Another notable
technology is freeze-thaw desalination.[28] Freeze-thaw desalination, (cryo-desalination or
FD), excludes dissolved minerals from saline water through crystallization.[29]

The Office of Saline Water was created in the United States Department of the Interior in
1955 in accordance with the Saline Water Conversion Act of 1952.[5][30] This act was
motivated by a water shortage in California and inland western United States. The
Department of the Interior allocated resources including research grants, expert
personnel, patent data, and land for experiments to further advancements. [31]

The results of these efforts included the construction of over 200 electrodialysis and
distillation plants globally, reverse osmosis (RO) research, and international cooperation
(for example, the First International Water Desalination Symposium and Exposition in
1965).[32] The Office of Saline Water merged into the Office of Water Resources Research
in 1974.[30]

The first industrial desalination plant in the United States opened in Freeport, Texas in
1961 after a decade of regional drought.[5]

By the late 1960s and the early 1970s, RO started to show promising results to replace
traditional thermal desalination units. Research took place at state universities in
California, at the Dow Chemical Company and DuPont.[33] Many studies focus on ways to
optimize desalination systems.[34][35] The first commercial RO plant, the Coalinga
desalination plant, was inaugurated in California in 1965 for brackish water.[36] Dr. Sidney
Loeb, in conjunction with staff at UCLA, designed a large pilot plant to gather data on RO,
but was successful enough to provide freshwater to the residents of Coalinga. This was a
milestone in desalination technology, as it proved the feasibility of RO and its advantages
compared to existing technologies (efficiency, no phase change required, ambient
temperature operation, scalability, and ease of standardization).[37] A few years later, in
1975, the first sea water reverse osmosis desalination plant came into operation.

As of 2000, more than 2000 plants were operated. The largest are in Saudi Arabia, Israel,
and the UAE; and the biggest plant with a volume of 1,401,000 m3/d is in Saudi Arabia
(Ras Al Khair).[38]

As of 2021 22,000 plants were in operation[38] In 2024 the Catalan government installed a
floating offshore plant near the port of Barcelona and purchased 12 mobile desalination
units for the northern region of the Costa Brava to combat the severe drought. [39]

In 2012, cost averaged $0.75 per cubic meter. By 2022, that had declined (before
inflation) to $0.41. Desalinated supplies are growing at a 10%+ compound rate, doubling
in abundance every seven years