Saline Water Conversion

BAGUIO & BALUCA

 What do we mean by "saline water?"
• Water that is saline contains significant amounts (referred to as "concentrations") of dissolved
salts. In this case, the concentration is the amount (by weight) of salt in water, as expressed in
"parts per million" (ppm). If water has a concentration of 10,000 ppm of dissolved salts,
then one percent of the weight of the water comes from dissolved salts.
• Here are our parameters for saline water:
• Freshwater - Less than 1,000 ppm
• Slightly saline water - From 1,000 ppm to 3,000 ppm
• Moderately saline water - From 3,000 ppm to 10,000 ppm
• Highly saline water - From 10,000 ppm to 35,000 ppm

By the way, ocean water contains about 35,000 ppm of salt.

• The scarcity of freshwater resources and the need for additional water supplies is
already critical in many arid regions of the world and will be increasingly
important in the future. Many arid areas simply do not have freshwater
resources in the form of surface water such as rivers and lakes. They may have
only limited underground water resources, some that are becoming more
brackish as extraction of water from the aquifers continues.
• Areas that have either no or limited surface water or groundwater may choose to
desalinate. Reverse osmosis is an increasingly common method of desalination,
because of its relatively low energy consumption.
Reverse
Osmosis
• Another way saline water is desalinized is by the "reverse osmosis"
procedure. In most simplistic terms, water, containing dissolved salt molecules,
is forced through a semipermeable membrane (essentially a filter), in
which the larger salt molecules do not get through the membrane holes but the
smaller water molecules do.
• Reverse osmosis differs from filtration in that the mechanism of fluid flow is
by osmosis across a membrane. The predominant removal mechanism in
membrane filtration is straining, or size exclusion, where the pores are 0.01
micrometers or larger, so the process can theoretically achieve perfect
efficiency regardless of parameters such as the solution's pressure and
concentration. Reverse osmosis instead involves solvent diffusion across a
membrane that is either nonporous or uses nanofiltration with pores 0.001
micrometers in size. The predominant removal mechanism is from
differences in solubility or diffusivity, and the process is dependent on
pressure, solute concentration, and other conditions. Reverse osmosis
is most commonly known for its use in drinking water purification from
seawater, removing the salt and other effluent materials from the water
molecules.
Reverse Osmosis
Process