ChE 413 Desalination and Water Treatment تحلية المياه

Desalination and Water Treatment         تحليـــة ومعالجة المياه 

  Description of the Course:
Study of the scientific, technological as well as economic aspects of desalination of seawater and brackish water with special reference to local conditions. Recovery of minerals as by-products. Solar energy utilization

 

Water treatment is, collectively, the industrial-scale processes that makes water more acceptable for an end-use, which may be drinking, industry, or medicine. Water treatment is unlike small-scale water sterilization that campers and other people in wilderness areas practice. Water treatment should remove existing water contaminants or so reduce their concentration that their water becomes fit for its desired end-use, which may be safely returning used water to the environment.

The processes involved in treating water for drinking purpose may be solids separation using physical processes such as settling and filtration, and chemical processes such as disinfection and coagulation.

Biological processes are employed in the treatment of wastewater and these processes may include, for example, aerated lagoons, activated sludge or slow sand filters.

Desalination:
Removal of salt (sodium chloride) and other minerals from the sea water to make it suitable for human consumption and/or industrial use. The most common desalination methods employ reverse-osmosis in which salt water is forced through a membrane that allows water molecules to pass but blocks the molecules of salt and other minerals

 
Topics to be covered through the semester

	Topics
	Introduction (Water problem in Saudi Arabia, water characteristics, seawater chemistry: (composition, salinity, alkalinity, gases dissolved), brackish water, desalination terminology). 2 wk
	General Description of Water Treatment Processes. 1 wk
	Scale Formation and Prevention(definition of scales, main scale component, factors affecting scaling, scale control methods, scale cleaning methods. 2 wk
	Water Hardness and Chemical Processes for Hardness Removal. 2 wk
	Desalination Processes and Methods of Classifications (Technical comparison between various processes). 1 wk
	Thermal Desalination Processes (Flash distillation, multiple effect distillation (MED), multistage flash distillation (MSF), vapor compression (VC), combination distillation, solar distillation). 3 wk
	Membrane Processes (Electrodialysis (ED), reverse osmosis (RO)). 3 wk
	General Engineering Considerations (Cost estimation of desalination processes, minimum energy requirements, waste brine disposal, de-carbonation and de-aeration). 1 wk

Specific instructional goals:
1. Understanding of the water chemistry.
2. Describing various desalination process flow sheets.
3. Using material and energy balances to describe desalination processes.  

Textbook:

There is no particular textbook assigned to this course. The following references cover most of the topics:
   1. E. D. Howe, "Fundamentals of Water Desalination", Marcel Dekker, 1974.
   2. A. Porteous, "Saline Water Distillation Processes", Longman, 1975.
   3. K.S. Spiegler and Y.M. El-Sayed, "A Desalination Primer", Balaban Desalination,  
       Publications, 1994.

Important Links
روبط لمواقع علمية Links

How Seawater Desalination Works

Exams + solutions: