desalination of seawater with minimal energy use

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Home Technology Energy & Green Tech July 12, 2011

Desalinating seawater with minimal energy useJul 12, 2011

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At a pilot facility in Singapore, Siemens has cut the energy needed to desalinate seawater by morethan 50 percent. The plant processes 50 cubic meters of water per day, consuming only 1.5 kilowatt-hours of electricity per cubic meter. The most efficient desalination technique currently in use isreverse osmosis, which consumes more than twice as much energy. The magazine "Pictures of theFuture" reports that the new technique uses an electric field to remove the salt from the water. Planscall for demonstration units to be set up in Singapore, the U.S., and the Caribbean by mid-2012.




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Experts estimate that global water consumptionwill rise by 40 percent over the next 15 years.Because desert countries and small nations such as Singapore have few sources of fresh water, theyare increasingly desalinating seawater, which still consumes a lot of energy. Turning one cubic meterof seawaterinto steam takes about 10 kilowatt-hours of electricity. By contrast, reverse osmosis,which presses the water through a filter, consumes about four kilowatt-hoursfor the same amount ofwater.

The new energy-saving system from Siemens uses electrodialysis. It extracts the salts positively andnegatively charged ions from the water by means of an electric field. Special membranes that onlyallow a single type of ion to pass through create channels that collect either the resulting brine or the

purified water. However, the process becomes inefficient as the salt concentration declines becausethe waters electrical resistance increases. Thats why a Continuous Electrodeionization (CEDI)system is used to extract the last percentage of salt in the water. In this system, ion exchange resinslocated between the membranes capture the ions and transport them away from the water.

Experts from Siemens Corporate Technology are currently working on a simulation model that willhelp further improve the process. As part of a project sponsored by the German Research Ministry,

the researchers will simulate the processes at the molecular level. They hope the model will helpthem to better understand the transport of the ions through the membranes as well as the dynamics ofthe water flow in the electric field.

Siemens developed the new desalination technique at the Singapore WaterHub, a research center forwater treatment systems. The technology is part of Siemens Environmental Portfolio, with whichthe company generated about 28 billion in sales in fiscal year 2010.

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2 comments

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LoboSolo

not rated yet Jul 12, 2011The excess heat from a liquid fluoride thorium reactor is easily hot enough to distill fresh water from

the sea.Report

tarheelchief

not rated yet Jul 13, 2011LoboSolo is on the right track.The other track can be found in San Diego where they funded a large solar farm by contracting withthe water department for a long term agreement purchasing solar power electricity for the next 25

years.ReportCommenting is closed for this article.

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desalination of seawater with minimal energy use

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