The water related situation in many regions of this world, where the demand for freshwater is continuously growing, and where limited water resources are increasingly stressed by over-abstraction, pollution and climate change, urges to identify and apply beside the conventional sources for potable water procurement alternative sustainable remedies. These solutions could include e. g.: a) the reasonable and well controlled use of potable water in order to avoid wasting water, b) reuse / recycle water after treatment / purification of wastewater, and c) production of potable water by desalination of seawater or brackish water, or e.g. treatment of contaminated surface water. For the majority of these solutions the most successful, resilient and resource efficient applications can be based on membrane technology, if the related plants are designed, manufactured and operated adequately. This includes also the opportunities arising from improved wastewater management with focus on the purification of sewage treatment plant effluents that is increasingly suggested and accepted. As drought conditions and water pollution crises multiply, water is no longer viewed as a free commodity in processing environments. This in mind it is retraceable that the United Nations World Water Development Report 2017 entitled “Wastewater: The Untapped Resource” addresses the opportunities arising from improved wastewater management that includes the purification of effluents of sewage treatment plants. Thereby it can be assumed, that in the future water reuse will play a more significant role than it is supposed actually. The interactions between increasing water demand, progressive application of resource efficient water treatment processes based on membrane technology and increasing acceptance of purified wastewater will be the driving forces. One important option for India in coastal areas is the production of potable water by desalination of seawater, like in Chennai, where the undersigned has been deeply involved at his time in the tender and offer evaluation phase for the seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination plant 1. But in comparison to the related plant design that has been based on frame conditions considered to be up to date at that time, today further improvements addressing costs, reliability, sustainability and environmental aspects can be obtained if modern state of the art systems are used, e. g. for seawater intake and partial pre-treatment (sub-seabed units according the well proven Neodren technology) and for remineralisation of the permeate according newest developments.
The water related situation in many regions of this world, where the demand for freshwater is continuously growing, and where limited water resources are increasingly stressed by over-abstraction, pollution and climate change, urges to identify and apply beside the conventional sources for potable water procurement alternative sustainable remedies. These solutions could include e. g.: a) the reasonable and well controlled use of potable water in order to avoid wasting water, b) reuse / recycle water after treatment / purification of wastewater, and c) production of potable water by desalination of seawater or brackish water, or e.g. treatment of contaminated surface water. For the majority of these solutions the most successful, resilient and resource efficient applications can be based on membrane technology, if the related plants are designed, manufactured and operated adequately. This includes also the opportunities arising from improved wastewater management with focus on the purification of sewage treatment plant effluents that is increasingly suggested and accepted.
As drought conditions and water pollution crises multiply, water is no longer viewed as a free commodity in processing environments. This in mind it is retraceable that the United Nations World Water Development Report 2017 entitled “Wastewater: The Untapped Resource” addresses the opportunities arising from improved wastewater management that includes the purification of effluents of sewage treatment plants. Thereby it can be assumed, that in the future water reuse will play a more significant role than it is supposed actually. The interactions between increasing water demand, progressive application of resource efficient water treatment processes based on membrane technology and increasing acceptance of purified wastewater will be the driving forces.
One important option for India in coastal areas is the production of potable water by desalination of seawater, like in Chennai, where the undersigned has been deeply involved at his time in the tender and offer evaluation phase for the seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination plant 1. But in comparison to the related plant design that has been based on frame conditions considered to be up to date at that time, today further improvements addressing costs, reliability, sustainability and environmental aspects can be obtained if modern state of the art systems are used, e. g. for seawater intake and partial pre-treatment (sub-seabed units according the well proven Neodren technology) and for remineralisation of the permeate according newest developments.
1 Comment
Desalination of sea water is undoubtedly a very expensive and energy-intensive proposal under today's aggregate situation. It would be nice to know what is the maintenance situation of the Chennai plant, particularly in view of the fact that around 90% of the WTPs/STPs are non functional in the country or only having primary treatment under working condition. Despite the newer technologies, these infrastructures are very expensive and energy-intensive also.
Published by Prof. Partha Sarathi Datta, Independent Consultant on Water & Environment