Energy intensity and waste of water desalination

Global population growth and urbanisation have led to a surge in demand for freshwater, while the effects of climate change are reducing freshwater availability. Desalination has been proposed as a solution to meet this growing demand. Problems with desalination arise not only from the high energy consumption of desalination, but also from the discharge of brine – a waste product from desalination plants that is highly concentrated in salt and contains some chemical residues. This solution has simply been discharged into the marine environment, resulting in increased toxicity levels. These toxicity levels have a severe impact on fish and marine plants.

Nº 73
some attempts made
past case
Region-1
Region-2
Region-3
Region-4
ongoing case
no attempts made

Energy intensity and waste of water desalination

Global population growth and urbanisation have led to a surge in demand for freshwater, while the effects of climate change are reducing freshwater availability. Desalination has been proposed as a solution to meet this growing demand. Problems with desalination arise not only from the high energy consumption of desalination, but also from the discharge of brine – a waste product from desalination plants that is highly concentrated in salt and contains some chemical residues. This solution has simply been discharged into the marine environment, resulting in increased toxicity levels. These toxicity levels have a severe impact on fish and marine plants.

In Taiwan, the discharge of brine from desalination plants is causing an escalation in the levels of heavy metals, such as copper and zinc, in marine ecosystems, affecting seawater, sediments and shellfish. These elevated concentrations pose a risk of exceeding established safety thresholds and have the potential to cause significant adverse impacts on the marine environment.

Yung-Chang Lin, Guo-Ping Chang-Chien, Pen-Chi Chiang, Wei-Hsiang Chen, Yuan-Chung Lin (2013). Potential impacts of discharges from seawater reverse osmosis on Taiwan marine environment. Desalination, 322, 84-93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.desal.2013.05.009.

Roberts, D. A., Johnston, E. L., & Knott, N. A. (2010). Impacts of desalination plant discharges on the marine environment: A critical review of published studies. Water Research, 44(18), 5117–5128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2010.04.036