desalination is good for india
DESALINATION TECHNOLOGY IS NEED OF THE HOUR
With the ever-increasing need for locate for potable sources of water, the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) has given extra thrust to the development of desalination technologies and technologies for better quality of life.
"India receives 4000 cubic billion metre of rainfall per year and 3000 billion cubic metre goes back to the sea", says a senior scientist of BARC. The annual water consumption in India is now about 750 billion cubic metres per year for all applications including agricultural, industrial, domestic and commercial usage. Assuming a conservative figure of per capita water consumption of 1000 cubic metres per year, the water availability in the country is likely to get fully stretched by the year 2010 unless replenishment is planned right now.
BARC has been engaged in R&D activities on desalination since the 1970s. The development activities in the field of desalination was initially based on thermal processes. Later, the programme for development of membrane processes was also included in the 1980s when it showed signs of commercial viability. Over a period of time, BARC has successfully developed desalination technologies based on multi-stage flash (MSF) evaporation, reverse osmosis (RO) and low temperature evaporation (LTE). In the field of thermal desalination, efforts are directed towards utilizing the low-grade heat and the waste heat as energy input for desalination. In membrane desalination, work is being carried out on newer pre-treatment methods such as the use of ultrafiltration, energy reduction and higher membrane life.
Based on these technologies, a number of desalination plants have been successfully demonstrated during the last few years. These include desalination plants for conversion of sea water into fresh potable water, providing safe drinking water in brackishness-affected areas and for process applications.
Based on decades of operational experience of MSF and RO plants at Trombay, BARC has initiated the Nuclear Desalination Demonstration Project (NDDP) at Kalpakkam in Tamilnadu.The NDDP consists of a hybrid MSF-RO desalination plant of 6300 cubic metres a day capacity. The requirements of seawater, steam and electrical power for the desalination plants are met from the Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS) I & II.
The already commissioned plant operates at relatively lower pressure to save energy, employs lesser pre-treatment because of relatively clean feed water from MAPS outflow and aims at longer membrane life resulting in lower water cost. The MSF plant which is in an advanced stage of completion is designed for higher top brine temperature with gain to output ratio (GOR) of 9:1 and utilizes less pumping power.
The desalination plant can meet the fresh water needs of around 45,000 persons. There is a provision of increasing the water capacity by employing appropriate technology to serve larger numbers of people. The overall water production cost for this plant is estimated to be 5 paise per litre. For large size plants it is likely to come down to about 4 paise per litre.
The waste heat of nuclear reactors has been used for setting up a 6300 cubic meter/day demonstration plant in Kalpakkam and a pilot plant has been coupled to CIRUS reactor. The RO part of the plant produces 1800 cubic metres/day. Safe drinking water was provided recently to the tsunami affected people in Tamil Nadu.In brackishness affected areas, small desalination plants have been set up producing 30,000 litres per day in villages of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan. Radioisotopes are also used in hydrology to study sediment transport at ports, flow measurements, seepage and ground water availability. Using radioisotope tracer techniques a major study of the sewage disposed into the sea at Colaba, Mumbai was conducted.
With the ever-increasing need for locate for potable sources of water, the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) has given extra thrust to the development of desalination technologies and technologies for better quality of life.
"India receives 4000 cubic billion metre of rainfall per year and 3000 billion cubic metre goes back to the sea", says a senior scientist of BARC. The annual water consumption in India is now about 750 billion cubic metres per year for all applications including agricultural, industrial, domestic and commercial usage. Assuming a conservative figure of per capita water consumption of 1000 cubic metres per year, the water availability in the country is likely to get fully stretched by the year 2010 unless replenishment is planned right now.
BARC has been engaged in R&D activities on desalination since the 1970s. The development activities in the field of desalination was initially based on thermal processes. Later, the programme for development of membrane processes was also included in the 1980s when it showed signs of commercial viability. Over a period of time, BARC has successfully developed desalination technologies based on multi-stage flash (MSF) evaporation, reverse osmosis (RO) and low temperature evaporation (LTE). In the field of thermal desalination, efforts are directed towards utilizing the low-grade heat and the waste heat as energy input for desalination. In membrane desalination, work is being carried out on newer pre-treatment methods such as the use of ultrafiltration, energy reduction and higher membrane life.
Based on these technologies, a number of desalination plants have been successfully demonstrated during the last few years. These include desalination plants for conversion of sea water into fresh potable water, providing safe drinking water in brackishness-affected areas and for process applications.
Based on decades of operational experience of MSF and RO plants at Trombay, BARC has initiated the Nuclear Desalination Demonstration Project (NDDP) at Kalpakkam in Tamilnadu.The NDDP consists of a hybrid MSF-RO desalination plant of 6300 cubic metres a day capacity. The requirements of seawater, steam and electrical power for the desalination plants are met from the Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS) I & II.
The already commissioned plant operates at relatively lower pressure to save energy, employs lesser pre-treatment because of relatively clean feed water from MAPS outflow and aims at longer membrane life resulting in lower water cost. The MSF plant which is in an advanced stage of completion is designed for higher top brine temperature with gain to output ratio (GOR) of 9:1 and utilizes less pumping power.
The desalination plant can meet the fresh water needs of around 45,000 persons. There is a provision of increasing the water capacity by employing appropriate technology to serve larger numbers of people. The overall water production cost for this plant is estimated to be 5 paise per litre. For large size plants it is likely to come down to about 4 paise per litre.
The waste heat of nuclear reactors has been used for setting up a 6300 cubic meter/day demonstration plant in Kalpakkam and a pilot plant has been coupled to CIRUS reactor. The RO part of the plant produces 1800 cubic metres/day. Safe drinking water was provided recently to the tsunami affected people in Tamil Nadu.In brackishness affected areas, small desalination plants have been set up producing 30,000 litres per day in villages of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan. Radioisotopes are also used in hydrology to study sediment transport at ports, flow measurements, seepage and ground water availability. Using radioisotope tracer techniques a major study of the sewage disposed into the sea at Colaba, Mumbai was conducted.
Comments
When evaluating a desalination project Reverse Osmosis is typically the process considered. Yet, there is a viable and proven alternative in distillation with lower costs.
The Advanced Vapor Compression Desalination Process is an advanced and highly environmentally friendly desalination process, an alternative, single performance, and lower maintenance process compared to Reverse Osmosis. The system is based on proven flash distilling principles but features an innovative, highly efficient, and compact design.
Additionally, it offers a unique advantage in the treatment of salt byproducts.
The system produces outputs of either valuable crystalline salt or concentrated brine. The
process is optimized forthe desalination of seawater drawn from wells below the sea floor and
not returning the brine to the sea. The process has modular abilities and can be expanded to meet
future requirements in water demand or designed and built at the start for higher volume. A basic
plant design can operate on solar, thermal, nuclear or traditional energy sources. Each unit is
optimized from an initial engineering site study to account for different environmental and structural needs. A basic stand-alone unit of 1 acre-foot per day has a footprint of approximately
twenty feet in diameter. The larger the plant water volume the lower the cost is per acre-foot. The
plant energy consumption is on the order of about 4 to 20 kw per1000 gallons produced based on
the design, volume produced and type of energy.
The system can also be used in industrial treatment and recovery of effluent water. The life cycle
of the plant is based on a 25 year time line which can be extended through proper preventable
maintenance and overhaul.