Seawater Desalination for Freshwater Production

Abstract

In the last decades more and more countries have experienced water scarcity problems, thus pointing at alternative non-conventional sources of fresh water. Seawater desalination has proven to be a reliable and economically sustainable water resource since the second half of the 20th Century. A number of well proven technologies already exist, with advantages and disadvantages making each of them more suitable in specific sites. Moreover, quite recently, coupling the use of renewable energy to the production of fresh water from seawater results in novel technologies, able to minimise the environmental impact that desalination processes can create due to their intense energy consumptions.

On the above basis, the chapter opens the book providing a general overview on the world water scarcity problem, followed by a classification of the main desalination technologies based on different principles. Also an overview on the coupling of desalination processes with RE technologies is presented, thus introducing on the topics discussed in details in the second part of the book.