Although more than 70% of the globe is covered with water, only a small portion is suitable for direct human use, making the scarcity of freshwater one of our planet’s most serious challenges. In this context, desalination, defined as “the separation of salts from water”, is one of the possible solutions for appeasing our ever-increasing thirst. By drawing upon the expertise of a remarkable team of international authors, this book aims to provide a simple, encompassing, and “multidisciplinary” introduction to desalination. The particular forte of this publication is its inclusive yet straightforward nature. In other words, the unique assortment of reader-friendly chapters is designed to cover the topic of desalination as a whole, and strike a delicate balance between the technical and non-technical. To this end, the book is divided into five general sections: • The first section presents an overview of water scarcity, followed by a review of integrated water management and the alternatives to desalination. The fundamentals of desalination are also provided, including simple water chemistry; • The second section covers conventional desalination technologies, including thermal and membrane processes. The topics of pre- and post- treatment are given due credit, as all desalination plants are more or less reliant on them; • The third section reviews the history of how desalination technologies originated, including a review of today’s R&D activities and cutting edge research. The topic of membrane manufacturing is also covered; • Section four is concerned with energy and environmental issues, including the application of renewable and nuclear energy, energy minimization, brine management, and environmental impacts; • Finally, section five covers the social and commercial issues, ranging from rural desalination to politics. Desalination costs and economic feasibility are discussed, as well as issues in business development and future market prospects.
