Database Of Permitting Practices For Seawater Concentrate Disposal

Permitting the disposal of concentrate and other waste streams is often one of the most challenging tasks associated with the development and implementation of desalination projects. This study focuses on the review of key regulatory requirements, support studies, and permitting practices for medium and large seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination plants in the United States and abroad. The size range (from 2.5 to 110 MGD or 9.5 to 440 ML/d) covers most plants built since 2005. The study is based on permitting experience with recent SWRO projects and is focused on the regulatory issues and considerations associated with the most commonly used concentrate management method: discharge to surface water bodies. Issues specific to the permitting of thermal desalination plants are not addressed in the report because, although popular in the Middle East, thermal desalination has not found significant application in seawater desalination in the United States and most other developed countries.The formal project objective was to identify the discharge information that permitting agencies need and the decision-making process they go through to permit discharge methods in order to help desalination project proponents focus and expedite their permitting efforts.The project involved documenting SWRO discharge regulatory information and facility information for the United States and selected countries. In the United States, the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit is the primary permit required for discharge to surface waters. Discussion focused on events, information, and issues associated with obtaining an NPDES-type permit. One of the key limiting factors in the construction of new seawater desalination plants is the availability of suitable conditions and locations for disposal of the high-salinity sidestream commonly referred to as concentrate or brine. Concentrate is generated as a by-product of the separation of the minerals from the source water used for desalination. This liquid stream contains in concentrated form most of the source water's dissolved solids as well as some pretreatment additives (i.e., residual amounts of coagulants, flocculants, and antiscalants) and other chemicals, as well as microbial contaminants and particulates rejected by the reverse osmosis (RO) membranes. If chemical pretreatment is used, such as coagulants, antiscalants, polymers, or disinfectants, some or all of these chemicals may reach or may be disposed of along with the plant discharge concentrate. Chapter 1 of the report provides background and contextual information for the study including the relatively new interest and recent challenges associated with the permitting complexity of medium and large SWRO desalination plants in the United States.

Management of Concentrate from Desalination Plants provides an overview of the alternatives for managing concentrate generated by brackish water and seawater desalination plants, as well as site-specific factors involved in the selection of the most viable alternative for a given project, and the environmental permitting requirements and studies associated with their implementation. The book focuses on widely used alternatives for disposal of concentrate, including discharge to surface water bodies; disposal to the wastewater collection system; deep well injection; land application; evaporation; and zero liquid discharge. Direct discharge through new outfall; discharge through existing wastewater treatment plant outfall; and co-disposal with the cooling water of existing coastal power plant are thoroughly described, and design guidance for the use of these concentrate disposal alternatives is presented with engineers and practitioners in the field of desalination in mind. Key advantages, disadvantages, environmental impact issues, and possible solutions are presented for each discharge alternative. Easy-to-use graphs depicting construction costs as a function of concentrate flow rate are provided for all key concentrate management alternatives. Gives a critical overview of the latest practices and technological advancements in managing concentrate Discusses the relationship between concentrate quality and quantity and other desalination processes Provides design and cost guidance information to assist practitioners with the selection and sizing of the most commonly practiced concentrate disposal alternatives

Desalination Project Cost Estimating and Management examines the key issues associated with the estimation of costs for desalination plants. It covers all aspects of desalination project cost estimating and management: direct and indirect capital costs, fixed and variable operation and maintenance costs, and total costs for water production. In addition, it provides a detailed overview of the factors that influence project costs and discusses the technological and project delivery methods to control and optimize project costs. The book includes cost curves for the most commonly used seawater desalination facilities and numeric examples illustrating how to prepare a budgetary cost estimate for a typical desalination project. Features: •Presents a comprehensive engineering overview of key issues associated with desalination project cost estimating. •Includes cost curves which can be used for budgetary level estimates of capital, and operation and maintenance (O&M) expenditures. •Contains easy to use cost-estimating rules of thumb derived from actual desalination projects. •Includes several numeric examples illustrating the cost estimating process.

Pretreatment for Reverse Osmosis Desalination is a comprehensive reference on all existing and emerging seawater pretreatment technologies used for desalination. The book focuses on reverse osmosis membrane desalination, which at present is the most widely applied technology for the production of fresh drinking water from highly saline water sources (brackish water and seawater). Each chapter contains examples illustrating various pretreatment technologies and their practical implementation. Provides in-depth overview of the key theoretical concepts associated with desalination pre-treatment Gives insight into the latest trends in membrane separation technology Incorporates analytical methods and guidelines for monitoring pretreatment systems

Desalination Technology: Health and Environmental Impacts covers the latest developments in desalination, examining the environmental and public health-related impacts of these technologies. Written by international experts, the text presents specifications for assessing water quality, technical issues associated with desalination technologies, and the chemical aspects of desalinated water and its microbiology. The book also discusses environmental protection issues that assist in the optimization of proposed and existing desalination facilities to ensure that nations and consumers enjoy the benefits of the expanded access to desalinated water. This includes coverage of health and environmental issues such as energy conservation and sustainability as well as protection of delicate coastal ecosystems and groundwater from contamination by surface disposal of concentrates—challenges that must be addressed during the design, construction, and operation of a desalination facility. Development of new and improved desalinization technologies, including major cost reduction trends, have significantly broadened the opportunities to access large quantities of safe water in many parts of the world. And while there are many books available on desalination, this book’s unusual approach blends technical coverage of the latest technologies with coverage of the environmental and public health-related impacts of these technologies, setting it apart from other resources. It provides technical guidance based on the practical expertise of a balanced group of international scientists and engineers.

The book assembles the latest research on new design techniques in water supplies using desalinated seawater. The authors examine the diverse issues related to the intakes and outfalls of these facilities. They clarify how and why these key components of the facilities impact the cost of operation and subsequently the cost of water supplied to the consumers. The book consists of contributed articles from a number of experts in the field who presented their findings at the "Desalination Intakes and Outfalls" workshop held at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia in October, 2013. The book integrates coverage relevant to a wide variety of researchers and professionals in the general fields of environmental engineering and sustainable development.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DESALINATION PLANT OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE This Water Environment Federation and WateReuse Association publication describes state-of-the art operation, maintenance, and troubleshooting methods for reverse osmosis brackish and seawater desalination plants for municipal water supplies. All plant components are discussed in detail, from intake and pretreatment to discharge management. Best practices for maintaining plant equipment are also provided. Real-world examples illustrating the latest technologies and their practical implementation are included throughout this authoritative resource. Desalination Engineering covers: Source water open and subsurface intakes Source water pretreatment -- chemical conditioning, dissolved air flotation clarifiers, and granular media, membrane, and cartridge filters Reverse osmosis system operation Reverse osmosis system troubleshooting Post-treatment -- lime and carbon dioxide, calcite conditioning, remineralization, and disinfection Desalination plant discharge management Equipment maintenance -- pumps, air blowers, motors, bearings, valves, mechanical seals, mechanical drives, chemical feed systems, automatic samplers

There has been an exponential increase in desalination capacity both globally and nationally since 1960, fueled in part by growing concern for local water scarcity and made possible to a great extent by a major federal investment for desalination research and development. Traditional sources of supply are increasingly expensive, unavailable, or controversial, but desalination technology offers the potential to substantially reduce water scarcity by converting the almost inexhaustible supply of seawater and the apparently vast quantities of brackish groundwater into new sources of freshwater. Desalination assesses the state of the art in relevant desalination technologies, and factors such as cost and implementation challenges. It also describes reasonable long-term goals for advancing desalination technology, posits recommendations for action and research, estimates the funding necessary to support the proposed research agenda, and identifies appropriate roles for governmental and nongovernmental entities.