Seawater desalination equipment

1. Equipment introduction

Seawater desalination equipment refers to equipment specifically used to desalinate seawater. Seawater desalination mainly uses two methods to desalinate seawater, namely distillation and reverse osmosis.

2. How to operate

Seawater cannot be used directly due to its high salt content. Two main methods are used to desalinate seawater: distillation and reverse osmosis. Distillation is primarily used for large-scale desalination plants and in locations with abundant thermal energy.

The reverse osmosis membrane method is widely used due to its wide range of applications and high desalination rates. The reverse osmosis membrane method first extracts seawater and performs preliminary treatment to reduce its turbidity and prevent the growth of microorganisms such as bacteria and algae. A special high-pressure pump is then used to increase the pressure, allowing the seawater to enter the reverse osmosis membrane. Due to the high salt content of seawater, the seawater reverse osmosis membrane must have a high desalination rate and be corrosion-resistant, high-pressure-resistant, and anti-fouling. After being treated with the reverse osmosis membrane, the salt content of the seawater is greatly reduced, with the TDS content reduced from 36,000 mg/L to approximately 200 mg/L.

The quality of desalinated water is even better than tap water, making it suitable for use in industry, commerce, residential areas, and ships and vessels. Reverse osmosis seawater has a high salt content and hardness, making it highly corrosive to equipment. Furthermore, water temperature fluctuates significantly with seasonal variations. This makes reverse osmosis desalination systems significantly more complex than conventional brackish water desalination systems, resulting in significantly higher project investment and energy consumption. Therefore, it is crucial to reduce project investment and energy consumption through careful process design and rational equipment configuration, thereby lowering unit water production costs and ensuring stable system operation.

The basic principles of seawater desalination and brackish water desalination are essentially the same, but the process structures and parameters differ significantly. The characteristics of seawater desalination are primarily due to the fact that the salt content of seawater is much higher than that of surface water or groundwater. Specific characteristics include: