Climate Change: The Construction Of Desalination Plants

Climate change is one of the main concerns of the contemporary world due its various impacts in social, economic and environmental dimensions. One of the consequences of this global phenomenon is the change of availability of water resources through the planet, resulting in water-stressed regions. Therefore, water security has been increasingly approached in decision making processes on politics and, in order to adapt to this new reality, some measures must be taken on infrastructure such as the construction of pipe lines or the construction of desalination plants. Among these options, the desalination plant is the most questionable one because even with the ability of producing potable water regardless of rainfalls, it is an energy intensive …show more content…
It is a process that requires a significant amount of energy and there are at least three ways to separate saline water: thermal, electrical and by pressure. Essentially, all these methods separate saline water into two streams: a fresh water stream that contains a low concentration of dissolved salts, and a concentrate or brine one that contains the remaining salts (Department of Environment Australia, 2006). One of these methods is the reverse osmosis, in which pressure is used to pass water through a selectively permeable membrane, leaving salt behind. Also, there is the thermal method which is the oldest and consists in boiling water and then collecting the steam generated, separating it from the salts. Another desalination method is the utilisation of electric currents to drive ions across a membrane, carrying disassociated salts ions with it (Parise, 2012). All the methods are energy intensive, once the amount of energy used is proportional to the amount of salt in the water. Thereat, some technologies have been developed to reduce expenses, such as low-pressure vessels that reduce the boiling temperature of the water and consequently the amount of energy …show more content…
The desalination technology has been available for decades and has helped arid regions of the globe such as the Middle East and the Caribbean. However, climate change is strongly impacting the amount of rainfalls and severe droughts are becoming a reality to places that didn’t have to face water scarcity before. So, in order to be able to maintain water supply to people, some countries are adopting desalination plants as an alternative to deal with this new scenario. Currently, this kind of water supply is present in at least 120 countries, including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Spain and Portugal (Poseidon Water,