FAQs/
Desalination
Osmosis is a physical phenomenon related to the behaviour of a solid as a solute of a solution before a membrane that is semipermeable for the solvent but not for the solutes. Such behaviour involves simple diffusion through the membrane, without “energy expenditure.” The end result is that, although water moves from the area of low concentration to the area of high concentration and vice versa, there is a greater net flow of water molecules passing from the area of low concentration to the area of high concentration.
It can be said that the opposite of osmosis is being done, which is why it is called reverse osmosis. Keep in mind that in reverse osmosis only water passes through the semipermeable membrane. That is, the water from the area of high concentration passes to the area of low concentration.
If the high concentration is salt, for example seawater, when pressure is applied, the seawater passes to the other side of the membrane. Only water, not salt. That is, the water has been desalinated by reverse osmosis, and can become drinkable.
Desalination is a process by which salt is removed from sea or brackish water. Desalination plants are facilities intended for desalination, generally of seawater or salt lakes for the purpose of obtaining drinking water.
Sea water is very salty because it has dissolved mineral salts that precipitate when the water evaporates. Due to the presence of these mineral salts, sea water is not drinkable for humans and ingestion in large quantities can cause death. 97.5% of the water that exists on our planet is salty and only less than 1% is suitable for human consumption.
Making seawater drinkable is one of the possible solutions to the shortage of drinking water. By desalinating seawater, fresh water suitable for supply and irrigation is obtained.
Desalination has quite a few applications, including supplying water for drinking, agriculture, industry, development, and recreation. Over the years, a number of desalination technologies have been developed. Two main families predominate: thermal and membrane.
THERMAL DESALINATION
Thermal desalination technologies use heat to boil water. The salt is left behind as the heated water turns to vapor. Then the system condenses the vapor to produce pure water.
Thermal desalination is the older of the two technologies and is very energy-intensive. It uses 3 times as much energy as many reverse osmosis plants and 5 times as much energy as Triton’s plants.
It has been the preferred method of desalination in the Gulf. Reverse Osmosis is far more energy-efficient than thermal desalination—and is growing at a much faster pace.
MEMBRANE DESALINATION (REVERSE OSMOSIS)
The second approach uses a membrane to separate the salt from the water. The leading membrane technology is Reverse Osmosis, which Triton plants use.
In Reverse Osmosis, water is pushed at very high pressure through a membrane, which blocks salts and undesirable chemicals but allows water molecules to flow through.
Reverse Osmosis is far more energy-efficient than thermal desalination. And the cost of producing water by Reverse Osmosis is typically less than half of what it costs by thermal desalination.
Yes. The supply of water on the planet has remained unchanged for thousands of years, but pollution is making more and more water undrinkable. At the same time, climate change is reducing our fresh water supply by permanently melting the snowpack, and the underground aquifers we’ve long used are being depleted. Add to this the fact that population is exploding, and we have a demand for fresh water that the current supply can’t meet. As the population continues to grow, this problem will worsen.
Is desalination good for the environment? It can be, if you do it right.
Developing any water supply infrastructure has an impact on the environment. With desalination, the two main concerns are energy consumption and brine discharge
ENERGY CONSUMPTION
Desalinating water requires energy. Triton plants operate with less energy than any other desalination plant on the market.
While traditional desalination plants use 15 kilowatt hours (kWh) per cubic meter (264 gallons) of water produced, Triton has reduced the energy consumption of our plants to less than 3 kWh per cubic meter. That’s an 80% reduction. A Triton plant can produce a cubic meter of fresh water with the same amount of energy it takes to light a 100w light bulb for just 30 hrs.
How? Our plants use reverse osmosis technology, which uses 1/3 to 1/5 the energy that thermal desalination plants use. We’re constantly making technological advances that lower our plants’ energy consumption. For example, the addition of the pressure exchanger (1999) lowered consumption by 66%. And the iSave (added in 2008) lowered energy use by another 20%.
BRINE DISCHARGE
Our compact plants are a fraction of the size of traditional industrial desalination plants. And because our plants are installed at the sites where they’re needed, they’re spread out among much larger areas. As a result, they release much less brine over a much larger area. For example, the maximum daily brine discharge of a Triton plant is 3000 cubic meters—as opposed to 40,000 (or more) in an industrial facility.
Triton desalination plants use high-pressure reverse osmosis, to remove the salt from seawater:
In reverse osmosis, seawater is pushed through a membrane, which blocks salts and undesirable chemicals but allows water molecules to flow through.
The salt is discharged in a highly concentrated stream of brine at a high level of pressure.
An energy recovery system uses the high pressure of the outgoing brine to increase the pressure of the incoming seawater.
The result is a dramatic decrease in the energy required to desalinate water.
Triton plants can be assembled as a compact unit, within a standard shipping container, or inside a machine room, from pre-assembled elements.
The compact plants are subjected to workshop tests before being sent to the client, so once the container arrives, they can be installed in 2 or 3 days, you only have to connect the unit to:
– Feed supply (seawater or brackish water)
– Product water evacuation system
– Evacuation system for concentrate
– Electrical power supply
The plants that are assembled in a machine room are delivered pre-assembled in different components, taking between 1 and 2 weeks to install.
After installation, we conduct continual tests to ensure that the plants are operating successfully. Then the plant is commissioned, and we put the operation and maintenance program into place.
All Triton plants are equipped with a remote monitoring system, which lets Triton know when to perform preventative maintenance and ensures that operation is smooth and uninterrupted.
Water is heavy (about 8 pounds per gallon), and it takes a lot of energy to transport it long distances and to high altitudes—not to mention the cost of the infrastructure required. While desalination may be more energy-intensive than traditional water treatment processes, it doesn’t require transport. It can meet demand right where it’s needed.