CHAPTER 2

Augmentation of Water
Resources

2.1 INTRODUCTION
In the last chapter we have seen that the distribution of water
resources in the world has a wide temporal and spatial variation. Some
twenty-six countries, including eleven in Africa and nine in the Middle
East, already face severe water shortage. In some cases, a litre of
bottled water cost 4-5 times that of a litre petrol.

In India also, the distribution of water resources has a wide

temporal and spatial variation. The per capita availability of water,
considering the nation as a whole, is low. Further, the population is
considerably increasing every year, while the total available quantity of
water nearly remains constant, thereby decreasing the per capita
availability of water every year. At some places in India, even though
plenty of ground water is available, the water contains considerabe
amount of dissolved salts and the water is not suitable for human use.
In such situations also, there is a frsh-water scarcity.

The fresh water scarcity, which is going to be severe in coming

years, has to be tackled from both sides: (1) Supply side by
augmentation of fresh-water resources and try to be cope with the
increasing demand; and (2) demand side, by managing demand, i.e.,
by managing the consumptive use through increasing efficiency of
supply, curtailing extravagant uses and reducing losses (Butler and
Memon 2006), therby indirectly augmenting fresh-water resources.
Both these approaches are covered here in this chapter.
 Different methods available for achieving the above goal can be
classified as follows:

1. Creations of new fresh-water resources

2. Rain water harvesting
3. Reclamation and reuse of water
4. Reduction in water losses
5. Transfer of water from surplus areas to deficit areas
6. Some unconventional methods

2.2 CREATION OF NEW FRESH-WATER RESOURCES

2.2.1 Desalination

2.2.1.1 Introduction

Many communities near sea costs have scarce fresh-water resources;

but have plenty of seawater, which cannot be directly used. Sea water
contains about 35,000 parts per million (ppm) of salts. If the water
contains from 10,000 to 35,000 ppm of salts, it is considered highly
saline; from 3,000 to 10,000ppm of salts, it is considered slightly
saline. Fresh water contains less than 1,00 ppm of salts. Saline water
can be converted to fresh water through some methods, desalination
being one of them.

Desalination is a process of removing dissolved minerals

(including but not limited to salts) and other impurities from seawater,
brackish water of treated waste water to produce usable water (CCC
2008, IDA 2008), desalination is a separation process used to reduce
the dissolved salts content of saline water to a usable level. All
desalination processes involve three liquid streams: (1) The saline feed
water (brackish water or sea water); (2) low-salinity product water; and
(3) very saline concentrate (brine or reject water)as shown in Fig. 2.1
for a reverse osmosis systems.

The saline feed water is drawn from oceanic or underground

sources. Although some substances dissolved in water, such as calcium
carbonate, can be removed by chemical treatment, other common
constituents such as sodium chloride require more technically
sophisticated methods, collectively known as desalination. In the past,
the difficulity and expences of removing various dissolved salts from
water made saline waters an impractical source of potable water.
However, starting in the 1950s, desalination became economically
practical for ordinary use, under certain circumstances.

The product water of the desalination process is generally water

with less than 500 mg/L dissolved solids, which is suitable for most
domestic, industrial and agricultural uses.

2.2.1.1 Desalination Methods

Several desalination methods are available. They are briefly described

here.
2.2.1.2.1 Distillation

Distillation of sea water has been practiced for many years. Over 60
percent of the worlds desalted water is produced with heat to distil
fresh water from sea water. The saline water is heated to the boiling
point to produce the maximum amount of water vapour. To do this
economically in a desalination plant, the boiling point is controlled b
adjusting the atmospheric pressure of the water being boiled. (As the
pressure decreases, the boiling point also decreases.) To significantly
reduce the amount of energy needed for vaporization, the distillation
process usually uses multiple boiling in successive vessels, each
operating at a lower temperature and pressure.

Apart from multiple boiling, the other important factor is scale control.
Some substances like carbonates and sulphates, especially gypsum
(CaSO4) present in sea water begin to leave solution when water
approaches about 95C. This material forms a hard scale that coats the
surfaces of the tubes and containers. Scale creates thermal and
mechanical problems, and once formed, is difficult to remove. One way
to scale formation is to keep the temperature below the boiling point of
the water.

These two concepts have made various forms of distillation

successful at various locations around the world. The process that
gives the most desalting capacity is multi-stage flash distillation,
commonly referred to as the MSF process.

In multi-stage flash distillation, the feed water passes through

successive stages, each succesive stage at increasingly lower
atmospheric pressure, thus keeping the water boiling without adding
more heat. Typically, an MSF plant can contain from 4 to 40 stages.
MSF plants are generally built in units of about 4,000 to 30,000 m3/d.

Other variations of distillation processes are the multiple effect

distillation process, commonly known as MED process; and vapour
compression (VC) distillation process. MED plants are typically built in
units of 2,000 to 10,000 m 3/d; while VC plants are usually built in 20 to
2,000 m3/d, often used for resorts, industries and drilling sited where
fresh water is not readily available.

Even though improved evaporators are develop, still the cost is

high. Solar stills can be used successfully in areas having a high
proportion of sunlight throughout the year. With solar stills the energy
costs are nil; however the cost of investment per unit of production is
high.
2.2.1.2.2 Membrane Processes

In nature, membranes play an important role in the separation of salts.

This includes both the processes of dialysis and osmosis that occur in
the body. Membranes are used in two commercially important
desalting processes: Electrodialysis and reverse osmosis.

1. Electrodialysis. Electrodialysis depends on the following general

principles:

Most salts dissolved in water are ionic, being positively (cationic)

or negatively (anionic) charged.
These ions are attracted to electrodes with an opposite electric
charge.
Membranes can be constructed to permit selective passage of
either anions or cations

Thus, in electrodialysis, the ions are removed by an electro-chemical

process, wherein they diffuse under the action of an electric potential
through membranes that are selectively permeable to different types
of ions. Electrodialysis was commercially introduce in the early 1960s.
Costs of salt removal through electro-dialysis is approximately
proportional to the amount of salt in water. Because of extremely high
cost this method is rather less suitable with sea water.

2. Reverse osmosis. Reverse osmosis is opposite to the technique of

osmosis, which refers to the movement of water from an area of higher
concentration to an area of lower concentration. Plants use this
technique to absorb water from the soil and to transport the water up
to the stem to all parts of the plant. In this process, dilute and more
concentrated solutions are separated by a semi-permeable membrane,
which act like a very fine filter. The semi-permeable membrane allows
water molecules to pass, but prevents the movement of salt and other
dissolved molecules through it. If the water and a saline solution are
separated only by a semi-permeable membrane, there will be a
transfer of water through the membrane to the saline solution. The
passage of water will continue until a stable condition is reached. The
difference of liquid levels across the semi-permeable membrane is
referred to as osmosis pressure.

The osmotic pressure varies with temperature and the

concentration of the saline solution. By applying pressure, in excess of
 the osmotic pressure, to the saline water, the process can be reversed;
and water molecules from the saline water can be forced through to
the other side of the semi-permeable membrane.

A reverse osmosis system (Fig.2.1) consists of four major

components/processes. These are:

High
Pressur Membrane
e Assembly

Saline Fresh
Pre- Post-
Feedwater Water
Treatment treatment

Brine
Stabilized
Discharge
Fresh Water

Fig. 2.1 Three liquids streams in a desalination plant (Reverse

Osmosis System)

1. Pre-treatment. The incoming feed water, which is saline, is pre-

treated, to be compatible with the used membrane, by removing
suspended solids, adjusting the pH and adding a threshold
inhibitor to control scailing caused by consituents such as
calcium sulphate.
2. Pressurization. The pump raises the pressure of the pre-treated
feed water to an operating pressure appropriate for the
membrane and the salinity of the feed water.
3. Separation. Applying saline feed-water to the membrane
assembly results in a fresh water-product stream and a
concentrated brine-reject stream. The quality of fresh water
produced depends on the pressure, the concentration of salts in
the feed water, and the salt permeation constant of the
membrane. Since no membrane is perfect in its rejection of salts,
a small percentage of salts passes through the membrane and
remains in the product water. Product-water quality can be
improved by adding a second pass of membrane, whereby
product water from the first pass is fed to the second pass.
4. Stabilization. The product water from the membrane assembly
usually requires pH adjustment and degasification before being
transferred to the distribution system for use as drinking water.
 The product water passes through an aeration column in which
the pH is elevated from a value of approximately 5 to a value
close to 7.

Reverse osmosis is available in a variety of configurations. Two of the

most popular are spiral wound, and hollow fine-fibre membranes. They
are generally made of cellulose acetate, aromatic polyamides, or thin-
film polymer composites. Both types of membranes are used for
brackish water and sea water desalination, although the specific
membrane and the construction of pressure vessel vary according to
the operating pressures.

2.2.1.2.3. Freezing

The temperature of sea water is gradually lowered, till ice crystals are
formed. These are free of salts and can be separated from brine. This
is, however, still a costlier metod.

2.2.1.3 Concentrated Disposal

The common element in distillation and membrane processes is the

production of a concentrate stream, also called brine, reject or a waste
stream. This stream contains the salts removed from the saline water
and some of the chemicals that might have been added during the
processes. Disposal of this waste water in an environmentally
appropriate manner forms an important part of the feasibility and
operation of a desalination plant. If the plant is located near the sea,
concentrate is disposed off in the sea. However, if the plant is
constructed inland, away from a natural salt water body, care must be
taken to see that the disposal does not pollute ground or surface water
sources. Disposal may involve injection of the concentrate into deep
saline aquifers, evaporation, dilution with treated effluent, spraying on
golf courses and/or open areas or transport by a pipeline to a suitable
disposal site. All these methods, however, would add to the cost of the
process.

2.2.1.4 Energy Use

The energy used in the desalination process is primarily electricity and

heat. Energy requirements depend on the salinity and temperature of
feed water, the quality of the water produced, and the desalting
technology used. Estimates for electricity-use requirements for various
technologies for seawater desalination are (CCC 2008): (1) Multistage
Flash (MSF): 260-530 kWh/ML; (2) Multiple Effect distillation (MED):
190-380 kWh/ML; (3) Vapour Compression (VC): 750-1,130kWh/ML; (4)
Reverse Osmosis (RO)-single pass: 440-830kWh/ML; and (5) Reverse
Osmosis (RO)-double pass: 490-900kWh/ML.

In addition to electricity requirements, MSF, MED, and some VC

plants also use thermal energy to heat feed water.

2.2.1.5 Economics

Desalination facilities exist in about 120 countries around the world.

The capital and operating costs for desalination, which have been
decreasing over the years, depend on capacity and type of plant, plant
location, feed-water quality, labour cost, energy cost, financing cost,
ease of concentrate disposal, level of instrumentation/automation, and
plant reliability. As a guide line, the production costof a brackish-water
desalination plant is about 10 to 15 Rs/kL, of seawater desalination
plant is about 40 o 50 Rs/kL, depending upon the total dissolved solids
(TDS) load in the effluent stream.

2.2.1.6 Comparison of Distillation and Reverse Osmosis

Technologies

The advantages of distillation plants over reverse osmosis (RO) plants

are: (1) Distillation plants have a greater potential for economies of
scale. (2) Even though distillation plants may require shutdown for
tube bundle replacement and cleaning; they require much less
shutdown as compared to RO plants. (3) Distillation plants require less
pre-treatment as compared to RO plants, which require coagulants to
settle out particles before water passes through the membranes. (4)
Unlike RO plants, distillation plants do not generate waste from
backwash of pre-treatment filters.

The advantages of RO plants over distillation plants are: (1) RO-

plant feed-water generally does not require heating, so the thermal
impacts of discharges from RO plants are lower. (2) RO plants have
fewer problems with corrosion. (3) RO plants usually have lower energy
requirements. (4) RO plants tend to have higher recovery rates, about
45 percent for seawater. (5) RO process can remove harmful
contaminants such as trihalomethane-precursors, pesticides, and
bacteria. (6) RO plants require less surface area than distillation plants
for the same amount of water production.
 One must remember that there is no best method of
desalination. Generally, distillation and RO are used for sea water
desalting, while RO and electrodialysis are used to desalt brackish
water. The best desalination system should be more than economically
reasonable in the study stage. It should work when it is installed and
continue to work and deliver suitable amounts of fresh water at the
expected quantity, quality, and cost for the life of the project.

2.2.1.7 Desalination Plants

Large-scale desalination requires large amounts of energy and

specialized expensive infrastructure, making it very costly compared to
fresh water from rivers or groundwater. Because of large energy
reserves of the Middle Eastern countries and relative scarcity of fresh
water, there are many desalination plants in this region. By mid-2007,
Middle Eastern desalination accounted for close to 75 percent of the
total world capacity, (Website-6 2008).

There are more than 13,000 desalination plants in the world,

providing 45 million m3 of fresh water per day. Saudi Arabias
desalination plants account for about 24% of the total world capacity.
The worlds largest desalination plant is the Jebel Ali desalination plant
(phase 2) in the United Arab Emirates. It is a dual-purpose facility that
uses multistage flash distillation and can produced 300 million m 3 of
fresh water per year.

Some typical desalination plants are now described.

1. A 100,000-L capacity desalination plant, working on reverse osmosis

has been built at Kavaratti, Lakshadweep islands (Website-7 2008).
Seven more similar plants are proposed at islets around Lakshadweep.
It is proposed to have ultimately a 10-million litre capacity desalination
plant.

2. The National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) of India has

developed a floating desalination plant-first of its kind in the world-with
a capacity of one million liters per day (Website-7 2008). The plant is
mounted on a 65m long, 16m thick barge and can serve any coastal
area where deep sea water is available, 30-40 km off the shore. The
plant, located off the Chennai coast line, cost 220 million rupees and
produces water at 0.06Rs/L. the quality of produced water is quite
good; the total dissolved solids are only 10 ppm.
 In this plant, the oceans surface water is boiled inside a vacuum
container. The vapour created in the flash boil process is condensed
through a refrigeration process with the help of deep sea water
collected from nearly 600 m below the surface of the sea.