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With medium to large power plant and desalination plants, the power plant's cooling water flow is likely to be several times larger than that of the desalination plant, reducing the salinity of the combination. Another method to dilute the brine is to mix it via a diffuser in a mixing zone.
Modern Water has deployed forward osmosis based desalination plants in Gibraltar and Oman. [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] In March 2010, National Geographic [ 7 ] magazine cited forward osmosis as one of three technologies that promised to reduce the energy requirements of desalination.
Waste heat from the power plant is used to heat the seawater, providing cooling for the power plant at the same time. This reduces the energy needed by half to two-thirds, which drastically alters the economics of the plant, since energy is by far the largest operating cost of MSF plants. Reverse osmosis, MSF distillation's main competitor ...
In China a desalination plant was planned for Tianjin in 2010, to produce 100,000 m³ of desalinated seawater a day. [ 9 ] [ 10 ] In Spain in 2004, 20 reverse osmosis plants were planned to be built along the Costas, expecting to meet slightly over 1% of Spain's total water needs.
Schematic of a multiple effect desalination plant. The first stage is at the top. Pink areas are vapor, lighter blue areas are liquid feed water. Stronger turquoise is condensate. It is not shown how feed water enters other stages than the first. F - feed water in. S - heating steam in. C - heating steam out. W - Fresh water (condensate) out.
David Feldman, director of Water UCI at UC Irvine, said desalination could eventually provide "somewhere between 10% and half" of California's potable water — with one caveat.
Single phase desalination is predominantly accomplished with photovoltaics that produce electricity to drive RO pumps. Over 15,000 desalination plants operate around the world. Nearly 70% use RO, yielding 44% of desalination. [38] Alternative methods that use solar thermal collection to provide mechanical energy to drive RO are in development.
Solar-powered desalination systems can be installed in remote locations where there is little or no infrastructure or energy grid. Solar is still affordable, eco-friendly, and considered an effective method amongst other conventional distillation techniques. Solar still is very effective, especially for supplying fresh water for islanders.