From: Team 4 (Muhammad Hanif, Joshua Silva, Hala Shadid, Noora Al Muhannadi, Mohammed Al Diab)

ENGL 210-501
Dr. Mary Queen
Problem Statement Final Draft
Due Date: 12 Mar 2023

Team 4 - Problem Statement

PROBLEM
Water is necessary for sustaining life, and it is also required for the development of countries. Around
the globe, we can utilize various types of water resources for human consumption or irrigation.
However, it is especially difficult for arid environments such as Qatar to find readily available clean water
that can be extracted from an existing reserve such as groundwater. Moreover, with rainfall averaging
80mm per year, Qatar suffers greatly from potable water shortages (Mannan et al., 2019). With
increasing urbanization and rapid development, Qatar needed to discover other ways to satisfy our
potable water needs. As a result, Qatar has turned to the thermal process of desalination to turn
seawater into drinkable and clean water (Rahman et al., 2018). The thermal desalination process Qatar
adopted is an energy-intensive process that uses fossil fuels such as natural gas.

The combustion of these fossil fuels emits greenhouse gasses that are harmful to us. Examples of
greenhouse gasses include carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and nitrous oxide. Carbon monoxide
harms living organisms because it binds more strongly to our red blood cells and replaces the oxygen in
our bodies. If enough of it accumulates in our body, it may cause tissue damage or even death (Mayo
Clinic Staff, 2019). Even though carbon dioxide is not classified as a pollutant, it adversely affects
humans. Long-term exposure to carbon dioxide can cause eye and skin problems; it may even induce
cancer (Tan et al., 2022).

Moreover, the increased presence of carbon dioxide in the air has been shown to increase the rate at
which the climate changes. Suppose the desalination plants in Qatar continue to be unsustainable by
using fossil fuels and disposing of brine into the ocean. In that case, their effect on the environment may
prove fatal, and we may see increased diseases in the population. Therefore, our team is determined to
find existing solutions that Qatar may use to lessen the adverse effects of desalination.

PURPOSE
This report aims to assess Qatar’s desalination process and promote sustainable methods of
desalination processes. We will conduct primary and secondary research to understand the
environmental impacts of desalination in Qatar. After clearly identifying the problem, we hope to find
potential solutions to the problem by researching primary and secondary sources on how other
countries have dealt with the waste products of thermal desalination. Precisely, how the solutions
proposed by other countries fit Qatar’s social, economic, and environmental sectors. We will then
construct a decision matrix for the possible solutions and create criteria that will narrow down to the
best solution. By the end of this, we wish to be able to address the best way Qatar can solve the
environmental impacts of desalination.
OBJECTIVES
Ways to demonstrate successful completion of the project:

1. Analyzing the energy consumption and CO2 emissions of existing desalination plants and
comparing them to new technologies being developed. The project will be considered successful
if there is a significant reduction in energy consumption and CO2 emissions. For example:
 Conduct a comprehensive analysis of existing desalination plants' energy consumption
and CO2 emissions using secondary research, such as published studies and reports.
 Analyze and compare the data collected with new technologies being developed,
including their energy consumption and CO2 emissions.
 Conduct interviews with desalination companies to gather insights into the challenges
and opportunities of implementing new technologies.

2. Measure the concentration of brine and other pollutants in the discharged water and monitor
the impact on marine ecosystems. Successful completion of producing clean water without
harming the environment involves monitoring and measuring the brine discharge to ensure that
it meets regulatory standards and does not cause harm to marine life.

3. Conduct a feasibility study on the use of renewable energy sources to power desalination plants
in Qatar. The study should evaluate the technical, economic, and environmental aspects of
different renewable energy options and provide recommendations for their implementation.

4. Stakeholder engagement: Measure engagement metrics, such as social media engagement or

attendance at public events about this matter, specifically targeting the government,
environmental organizations, and the general public. The project will be considered successful if
there is increased awareness and engagement among these stakeholders on the importance of
sustainable water management in Qatar. There are several communities and groups to address
this problem too. The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MOECC, n.d.), is mainly
reserved to manage all sector matters of environmental problems and change them to
sustainable and climate-conscious ways. The Government Communities Office also handles
environmental and sustainability issues. Companies that produce water could be addressed,
such as Al Rayyan, Aseel, and many other companies based in Qatar.

SCOPE
The main focus will be on Qatar, as Qatar has a serious water shortage where desalination is making the
environment much worse. Even though water waste is a global issue, we focused our research on
minimizing and treating water waste in Qatar. Waste products from desalination plants is a serious
environmental issue that has a huge impact (Qatar to Turn Desalination Waste Into a Useful Resource,
2023). Saving the environment and backing sustainable expansion are at the forefront of Qatar’s
importance (Tamim, 2022). The three bases of the country's water are Desalination, Groundwater, and
Recycled water (Water and Desalination, n.d.). Since Qatar is a mostly waterless state, desalination may
be the only method to get pure water. As desalination is the primary source of household water supply
in Qatar in general, fulfilling almost 50% of the whole water need for all sectors (Water Infrastructure in
Qatar, 2021). We believe that by assessing Qatar’s desalination process and promoting sustainable
methods of desalination processes without significantly affecting our daily lives, individuals and the
government might manage to handle it. As such, this could have an impact by the different solutions we
came up with as decreasing the effects of desalination and leading to sustainable development.

PREVIOUS & CURRENT RESEARCH

Previous Research
Desalination is a common practice to produce freshwater from salty seawater, which means that a
larger population has access to fresh water, leading to a higher quality of life. The demand for the
process has been on an incline during recent years, with the increasing population. Qatar is no different
from any other countries facing water shortages. Located on the equator, Qatar is known for its arid
climate which means that we do not have that many natural freshwater sources and we are restricted to
a few options. Additionally, we have seen tremendous development in the various sectors of Qatar,
which requires a lot of water that is used for irrigation, consumption etc. This meant that Qatar had to
rely on an artificial method to get fresh water from some other source. Being a peninsula, Qatar is
surrounded by a huge body of seawater, yes, it is water but brine is not suitable for us to use. Therefore,
we have resorted to desalination to acquire the needed freshwater from the salty sea water. The graph
below shows how the process of acquiring potable water from desalination has increased over the years
globally.

Figure 1: Steady growth of desalination over the last decade. (Robbins, n.d.)

There are currently two main types of desalination processes.

1. Thermal Desalination
2. Membrane Desalination

Qatar, like other countries in the MENA region, mainly utilizes thermal desalination to convert seawater
into potable water (Water and Desalination, n.d.) because of their abundant reservoir of fossil fuels
(Water and Desalination, n.d.). Thermal desalinations are separated into multi-stage flash and multi-
effect distillation (Ahmed et al., 2021). While both are energy intensive, Qatar uses the MSF method in
their thermal desalination plants because they have an abundance of fossil fuels that make it feasible for
them to do it.

In an MSF desalination process, seawater is first pumped into a tank where it is heated. The seawater
then is subjected to a pressure difference which separates the sea water into pure water and brine. The
brine stays at the bottom of the tank while the pure water evaporates and is condensed by the cold
seawater flowing in the cooling tubes. The fresh water is collected while the brine that is left behind is
then again subjected to the same processes until there is no way to recycle the brine. This process can
have up to 30 stages, that is why it is such an energy intensive process and the brine at the end is very
harmful to marine life. (Ahmed et al., 2021). The process is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: MSF desalination process (Liu et al., 2013)

The extensive use of desalination as a way of obtaining clean water has highlighted a major
environmental problem. This technique has been proven to have a significant carbon footprint and to
dump concentrated brine, as well as other toxic chemicals, into the seas. This discharge has the
potential to harm marine life, and carbon emissions from desalination facilities contribute considerably
to climate change. As a result, addressing the environmental effect of desalination and exploring
alternative options to fulfill the rising demand for clean water in a sustainable way is critical.

Desalination is an energy intensive process which requires large electricity consumption to operate. This
in turn leads to CO2 emissions, as renewable energy sources are unable to provide the sufficient energy,
therefore relying on natural gas and oil. According to an Energy Water Environment nexus, the
desalination process consumes around 75.2TWh per year, which includes the total energy required for
pumping and treatment process (Shahzad et al., 2017). Fossil fuels are the major fuel utilized for these
energy intensive processes, which result in desalination being a major source of CO2 emissions,
producing around 76 million tons (Mt) of CO2 per year. This figure is predicted to grow up to around 218
million tons of CO2 per year by 2040, with the rising demand of the exponentially growing population.
With 16,000 operational desalination plants around the world, almost 40% of them are located in the
middle east, a region rich in oil and gas, as stated by the UN World Water Development report 2021
(UN-Water, 2021).

Another major problem with desalination is the significant amount of byproduct produced during the
treatment process, salty brine. According to an article published by the World Economic Forum,
desalination produces 95 million cubic meters of freshwater, a total of 141.5 million cubic meters of
brine is produced as waste (Williams, 2022). Expelling brine back into the ocean can be harmful due to
its high concentration of salts and contains other minerals such as chlorine and copper. The high
concentration of brine around desalination plants results in “dead zones,” an area prone to be
uninhabitable to marine life due to the exceedingly high levels of nutrients and depleting oxygen levels.
Moreover, to add to the negative effects of the by-product, high temperatures from the desalination
process increases the toxicity of chemicals and metals from the waste products discarded back into the
ocean (Ihsanullah et al., 2021).

Current Solutions
One of the common solutions is pre-treatment, which expels most of the salts and chemicals passing
through the piping network and membranes. This solution stops salts from scaling along the osmosis
membranes, preventing high-cost maintenance when replacing the membrane structures.

Moreover, another solution suggested by an MIT article, Chandler, states that the waste from
desalination plants can be utilized into valuable resources that can be sold on the market (Chandler,
2019). One of the main resources includes Sodium Hydroxide, a salt used in everyday life. Sodium
hydroxide may also be used to pretreat the water, changing the acidity of the water. The pretreated
water may not damage the membranes as likely as before, therefore requiring lower maintenance.
Another useful product that can be produced from waste brine is hydrochloric acid, which can be
produced on-site along with Sodium Hydroxide, a primary hydrogen source. These products can be
either sold in the market, reducing the waste brine being disposed of in the oceans, or used for internal
processes within the plant such as pre-treatment or for cleaning.

An article published on carbon mineralization, aims at reducing CO2 emissions in a more viable and
environmentally friendly manner (Bang et al., 2019). Bang claims that mineralization of calcium and
magnesium in brine enhances the CO2 conversion ratio from 57% to 12%. The precipitated calcium and
magnesium are much higher than normal allowing for commercial applications. The benefits of
investigating deeply into the solution is lower operating costs, and also minimize the environmental
effects of brine, as the volume of salt solution will be reduced by 75%.

Some have suggested a change to the ideology of desalination, to a process that only involves solar
energy (Kumar et al., 2022). The concept is as shown through figure 2, in which electromagnetic waves
raise the temperature of a basin containing water at the bottom of the structure. The water undergoes
phase change, into steam and starts to rise. However, when it comes into contact with the glass surface,
it condenses and is collected through a distillation channel.

Figure 3: Conventional Single slope solar still (Kumar et al., 2022)

A current study on the further utilization of brine is an approach which uses chemical reactions in a
bubble column reactor based on the Solvay process to convert the expelled brine to useful and reusable
products (El-Naas et al., 2010). First used in 1881, the process can produce sodium carbonate and access
ammonium chloride from the reaction is used to recover ammonia. Currently the method is under test
to evaluate the optimum conditions to produce these useful products which can be sold on the market.
With this reaction, the wastewater (brackish water) contains the necessary minerals for irrigation, which
can be utilized to water plants in Qatar, making the system a more sustainable approach. A further
benefit of the process is the ability to capture CO2 from the waste gasses. Therefore, has a combine
effect on reducing brine and CO2 emissions into the environment.

Figure 4: Schematic of the bubble column reactor (El-Naas et al., 2010).

Qatar being dependent on desalination to produce clean water to its population, it needs to access
solutions to combat the issues of CO2 emissions and brine to the environment. Therefore, it needs to be
able to find a viable solution to the production of brine and reduce CO2 emissions from the energy
intensive processes taking place. Desalination plants face a major challenge due to the brine released
causing rise in temperatures and increased concentration in gulf waters (Gulf Times, 2023). Therefore,
steps must be taken to mitigate the issue.
USER NEEDS & DESIGN CONSTRAINTS:
The primary users affected by the problem of desalination rely on access to fresh water for daily use and
production processes. Primary users' needs and wants include access to affordable, safe, and reliable
fresh water. They also want the desalination process to have minimal negative impacts on the
environment and marine life. Challenges for primary users include the high cost of desalination and the
potential for harm to marine ecosystems. Secondary users that have an interest in ensuring the safety
and sustainability of water resources and the environment.

Users that are affected by the problem of desalination:

Primary Users:
● Residents
● Industries
● Desalination companies

Secondary Users:
● Government regulators
● environmental groups

Possible solutions to the problem of desalination would be desalination plants which are located in
coastal areas where seawater can be accessed. There are three main desalination plants in Qatar (Water
and Desalination, n.d.):
1. Ras Abu Fontas B-1
2. Ras laffan-A
3. Ras Laffan-B

Constraints on space and place include the availability of suitable land for constructing desalination
plants, as well as the impact of these plants on surrounding ecosystems and communities. These
constraints may affect the size and scope of recommended solutions. The size of the desalination plant
may also depend on the size of the population and the level of water demand in the area. The location
of the plant may also impact the cost of transporting water to different areas.

The two-month time constraint will require us to prioritize the most feasible and effective solutions for
Qatar, while working efficiently and effectively to gather and analyze data, research potential solutions,
and consult with experts. The implementation timeline of the recommended solution will also need to
be considered, as it may take significant time and resources to obtain government approval, secure
funding, and construct the desalination plant.

Potential solutions to the problem of desalination require economic, human, and environmental
resources. These resources may or may not be readily available in Qatar, and the cost-effectiveness of
obtaining them may vary. Creating or shipping resources may also have environmental impacts that
need to be considered. For example, desalination plants require significant amounts of energy to
operate. Qatar has significant natural gas reserves that can be used to power these plants. However,
burning natural gas contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, which can harm the environment.
Therefore, alternative sources of energy such as solar or wind power may be considered.
Implementation of recommended solutions may require government approval, investment from the
government or private sector, industry buy-in, citizen involvement, and residents’ involvement. The
specific requirements for implementation will depend on the solution recommended.
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