• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.442-448
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• 2021

Seawater desalination is a technology through which salt and other constituents are removed from seawater to produce fresh water. While a significant amount of fresh water is produced, the desalination process is limited by the generation of concentrated brine with a higher salinity than seawater; this imposes environmental and economic problems. In this study, characteristics of seawater from three different locations in South Korea were analyzed to evaluate the feasibility of crystallization to seawater desalination. Organic and inorganic substances participating in crystal formation during concentration were identified. Then, prediction and economic feasibility analysis were conducted on the actual water flux and obtainable salt resources (i.e. Na2SO4) using membrane distillation and energy-saving crystallizer based on multi-stage flash (MSF-Cr). The seawater showed a rather low salinity (29.9~34.4 g/L) and different composition ratios depending on the location. At high concentrations, it was possible to observe the participation of dissolved organic matter and various ionic substances in crystalization. When crystallized, materials capable of forming various crystals are expected. However, it seems that different salt concentrations should be considered for each location. When the model developed using the Aspen Plus modular was applied in Korean seawater conditions, relatively high economic feasibility was confirmed in the MSF-Cr. The results of this study will help solve the environmental and economic problems of concentrated brine from seawater desalination.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.301-309
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• 2015

Importance of pretreatment for seawater desalination is growing rapidly. Proper selection of pretreatment is critical for the successful, long-term operation in the seawater desalination plant such as seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO). The purposes of seawater pretreatment are to remove particulate, colloidal materials, organic, inorganic materials, microorganisms and their by-products present in the seawater, and thus to improve the performance of seawater desalination systems. However, pretreatment is most challenging for designing and operating seawater desalination plants because of fluctuations of water qualities, site specifications and wide ranges of target materials present in the seawater to be treated. In addition, it is also becoming evident increasingly that microscopic algae are a major cause of operational problems, for example, membrane fouling which is long-standing problem in SWRO process. Pretreatment strategies prior to the operation of seawater desalination technologies should be even more complicated by algae blooms and release of their harmful by-products in marine environment. This paper reviews the roles of various pretreatment methods in seawater desalination process. Benefits and drawbacks are described, which should be taken into account in future studies on selecting pretreatment for seawater desalination process.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.221-233
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• 2014

Simulations were conducted to predict supersaturation along Reverse Osmosis (RO) modules for seawater desalination. The modeling approach is based on the use of conservation principles and chemical equilibria equations along RO modules. Full Pitzer ion interactive forces model for concentrated solutions was implement to calculate activity coefficients. An average rejection rate for all ionic species was considered. Supersaturation has been used to assess scaling. Supersaturations with respect to all calcium carbonate forms and calcium sulfate were calculated up to 50% recovery rate in seawater RO desalination. The results for four different seawater qualities are shown. The predictions were in a good agreement with the experimental results.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.24 no.6_2
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• pp.827-839
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• 2021

Due to climate change and population growth, water scarcity is getting worse all over the world. Among various methods for desalination of seawater, the Multi-Effect Adsorptive Desalination method, which combines the existing Multi-Effect Desalination method and the Adsorptive Desalination method and can produce high-concentration-high-concentration freshwater, is emerging. Because the Multi-Effect Adsorptive Desalination method combines the two different methods, the system becomes complicated and the possibility of failure increases. Therefore, in this study, availability analysis was performed on the Multi-Effect Adsorptive Desalination process. A total of four types of reliability block diagrams were presented, and availability analysis was conducted based on them. The first form of a reliability block diagram is configured in series without any redundancy. The availability of the reliability block diagram composed of the serial system was found to be lower than the required availability. In order to increase availability, the redundancy to pumps and boiler are added to system. As a result of availability analysis, it was confirmed that designing desalination systems with redundancy to pump meets the 93% availability, which is typically required availability for various plants.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.285-289
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• 2015

Complicated and expensive seawater desalination technology is a big challenge in boron removal process. Conventional seawater desalination process of coagulation utilized for pre-treatment is difficult to remove boron. Boron can be removed more effectively in Reverse Osmosis (RO) process than any other processes. In this study, a coagulant with the name Mineral Cluster was examined its boron removal ability. Boron removal efficiency of Mineral Cluster depended on pH value and Mineral Cluster dosage. Desalination process combines the pre-treatment process with Mineral cluster diluted at the ratio of 1:2500 and the RO membrane process. The original sea water could be desalinated to drinking water quality, 1 mg/L, without any pH adjustments. Therefore, if the Mineral cluster is added without any other chemicals for adjusting pH, the desalination process would be much safer, efficient and economical.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.407-412
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• 2014

A new apparatus for seawater desalination, based on the principle of gas hydrates, is suggested. The equipment continuously produces and pelletizes gas hydrates by a squeezing operation in a dual cylinder unit, which is able to extract pure hydrate pellets from the seawater-containing reactor. Desalination efficiency for each dissolved ion from seawater samples was tested by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) and ion chromatography (IC) analysis. This study demonstrates that the suggested method and the stated apparatus may solve the difficulty of separating hydrate crystals from concentrated brine solutions, and therefore may be applied to improve the efficiency of existing desalination processes.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.54 no.spc1
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• pp.1023-1035
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• 2021

The electricity cost of a desalination facility was also predicted and reviewed, which allowed the proposed model to be incorporated into the future design of such facilities. Input data from 2003 to 2014 of the Korea Hydrographic and Oceanographic Agency (KHOA) were used, and the structure of the model was determined using the trial and error method to analyze as well as hyperparameters such as salinity and seawater temperature. The future seawater quality was estimated by optimizing the prediction model based on machine learning. Results indicated that the seawater temperature would be similar to the existing pattern, and salinity showed a gradual decrease in the maximum value from the past measurement data. Therefore, it was reviewed that the electricity cost for seawater desalination decreased by approximately 0.80% and a process configuration was determined to be necessary. This study aimed at establishing a machine-learning-based prediction model to predict future water quality changes, reviewed the impact on the scale of seawater desalination facilities, and suggested alternatives.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.343-350
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• 2008

Many reports have warned of insufficient water supply in most countries in future and prospected providing safe and clean water become more difficult by lack of access to sustainable drinking water resources. Several facts and figures explained the impact by natural climate change and human activity results in the water scarcity and deterioration. Among many scientific solutions, the seawater desalination using a reverse osmosis membrane, so called SWRO (Seawater Reverse Osmosis) process, has been recognized as one of the most promising alternatives because of its stability and efficiency in producing large amount of drinking water from seawater through desalination by membrane filtration. Recently, in Korea, numerous researches are conducted to develop more productive and cost effective SWRO process for its wide implementation. The objective of this paper is to review the patents concerning SWRO technologies involving the plant engineering, maintenance including pretreatment of seawater and fouling control, module design, and mechanical units development for energy saving. The patents in Korea, U.S., Japan, Europe, and PCT were intensively researched and analyzed to provide the state of the art as well as leading edge technology on SWRO. This information can hopefully suggest meaningful guidelines on future research and development.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.48-54
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• 1998

Korea becomes one of the countries which suffer from water shortage. It is expected that its water shortage in the early 2000's will be more than 10% of the annual demand. The shortage problem is more serious in the coastal areas where many industry complex locate. To solve the shortage problem, seawater desalination gets more attention as an alternative water supply source since Korea is surrounded by sea on its three sides. For potential application of seawater desalination in Korea, an economic analysis was conducted using cost data for the plants in the Middle Ease areas, The United states and others. The study is to provide a basis for the government to establish a strategy for promoting seawater desalination in Korea. It is discussed that the Reverse Osmosis (RO) process gets cheaper over times than the thermal processes of Multi-stage Flash Distillation (MSF) and Multi Effect Distillation (ME), especially in case where the capacity is less than about 50,000 ton/day. The unit cost of RO seawater is analyzed about US$1.35/ton in 1990 price. Since the Desalination plant can be operated regardless of weather conditions, industries in Korea's coastal areas which suffer from frequent droughts and water shortages are recommended to look into this option with more attention.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.15-29
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• 2014

Reverse Osmosis (RO) desalination has gained wide and increasing acceptance around the world as a straightforward undertaking to alleviate the alarming water crisis. An enhanced monitoring of the quality of the water feeding in seawater RO (SWRO) plant through the application of an effective pretreatment option is one of the keys to the success of RO technology in desalination plants. Over the past 10 years, advances in ultrafiltration (UF) membrane technologies in application for water and wastewater treatment have prompted an impetus for using membrane pretreatment in seawater desalination plants. By integrating SWRO plant with UF pretreatment, the rate of membrane fouling can be significantly reduced and thus extend the life of RO membrane. With the growing importance and significant advances attained in UF pretreatment, this review presents an overview of UF pretreatment in SWRO plants. The advantages offered by UF as an alternative of pretreatment option are compared to the existing conventionally used technologies. The current progress made in the integration of SWRO with UF pretreatment is also highlighted. Finally, the recent advances pursued in UF technology is reviewed in order to provide an insight and hence path the way for the future development of this technology.