Desalination and Seawater Resources

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The ABC TV science program, Catalyst, recently reported on -

"There’s one place in the world where a quarter of a million of Giant Australian Cuttlefish migrate each year for a spectacular love-in. The problem is, their unique nursery may face a mortal threat."

The mortal threat is the discharge of concentrated brine from a desalination plant - planned to produce 200 megalitres of fresh water per day for mining operations at Olympic Dam in South Australia. For more on the ABC TV Catalyst program, see the Catalyst website here.

For a variety of options to use concentrated brine as a positive resource, and avoid the risk of environmental damage by treating it as an unwanted "waste" to dump somewhere, have a look at the following collection of ideas available on the web.

Table 1 (From a paper presented at the European Conference on Desalination and the Environment: Fresh Water for All, May 2003)

Potential products from treatment of reject brine from Reverse Osmosis facilities and relevant market information (quoted product prices are in Australian dollars)

Product name	Chemical composition	Physical form	Indicative price, $	Potential applications/markets
Gypsum-magnesium hydroxide	CaSO4.2H20 +Mg(OH)2	Fine grain slurry	150/t	Sodic soil remediation Fertiliser additive Drip feed application
Magnesium hydroxide	Mg(OH)2	Fine grain slurry	400/t	Wastewater treatment Agriculture Cattle feedstock additive Refractories
Sodium chloride (halite)	NaCl	Crystalline salt	70/t	Food processing Agriculture Chlor-alkali
Precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC)	CaCO3	Fine grain, crystalline	300-900/t	High value paper coating pigment Filler in plastics paint, ink, and sealant production
Sodium sulphate	Na2SO4	Crystalline	170-200/t	Pulp and paper industries
Calcium chloride	CaCl2	Concentrated solution (35-38%)	220/t	Road base stabilisation Sodic soil remediation Dust suppression Drip feed application

The paper presented at the European Conference on Desalination and the Environment: Fresh Water for All, May 2003 - click here to download and open a PDF copy of this paper.
See the report "Zero Discharge Desalination" May 2006 - click here to download and open a PDF copy of this report. click here to open the report as an ISSUU publication. (Problems using ISSUU? Click here to see issuu.com's "The Definitive Guide: Troubleshooting Internet Explorer and other browsers")
For one example of a supplier of commercial "Zero Discharge Desalination" technology, click here to see their website
For an alternate use for saline brine from a desalination plant see Michael Longhurst's paper "Saline algae farming for biodiesel production and carbon capture (Potential for saline sites to grow algae for biofuel in central west New South Wales)", presented at the 2nd International Salinity Forum, 30 March - 3 April 2008, Adelaide - click here to download and open a PDF copy of this paper.
For additional information on algae farming see the extract of the US research paper "National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Aquatic Species Program Review" - click here to download and open a PDF copy of this extract. click here to open the extract as an ISSUU publication.