Industrial desalination of sea and brackish water is becoming an essential part in providing sustainable sources of fresh water for a larger number of communities around the world. Desalination is a main source of fresh water in the Gulf countries, a number of the Caribbean and Mediterranean Islands, and several municipalities in a large number of countries. As the industry expands there is a pressing need to have a clear and well-written textbook that focuses on desalination fundamentals and other industrial aspects.This book focuses on the processes widely used in industry, which include multistage flash desalination and reverse osmosis. Also, other desalination processes with attractive features and high potential are featured. It includes a large number of solved examples, which are explained in simple and careful matter that allow the reader to follow and understand the development. The data used in the development of the examples and case studies are extracted from existing desalination plants.This title also includes comparisons of model predictions against results reported in literature as well as available experimental and industrial data. Several industries include similar unit operation processes, i.e., evaporators, condensers, flashing units, membrane separation, and chemical treatment. Examples of such industries include wastewater treatment, food, petroleum, petrochemical, power generation, and pulp and paper. Process fundamentals and design procedures of such unit processes follow the same procedures given in this textbook.

The need for fresh water is increasing with the rapid growth of the world's population. In countries and regions with available water resources, it is necessary to ensure the health and safety of the water supply. However, in countries and regions with limited freshwater resources, priority is given to water supply plans and projects, among which the desalination strategy stands out. In the desalination process, membrane and thermal processes are used to obtain fresh water from salty water that is in abundant amounts in the sea. This book will outline valuable scientific contributions to the new desalination and water treatment technologies to obtain high quality water with low negative environmental impacts and cost. The editors would like to record their sincere thanks to the authors for their contributions.

Fresh Water from Saline Waters: The Political, Social, Engineering and Economic Aspects of Desalination examines the political, social, engineering and economic aspects of desalination, with emphasis on the recovery of fresh water from saline waters. The feasibility of combining power generation and distillation is discussed. This book begins with an overview of the history and some basic concepts of desalination, a process that involves artificially taking away or removing the salt from salted water or from sea water. It then presents a brief overall perspective on water supply and its uses in the United States, along with an explanation of the technical principles of distillation with particular reference to evaporation, freezing, and electrodialysis. The desalination process known as multi-stage flash distillation is also considered, together with the principles of combining power generation and distillation and the thermodynamic basis of this integration. The book concludes with an analysis of the economics of nuclear power plants and nuclear heat for distillation. This monograph will be useful for undergraduate students, practitioners, and researchers in engineering, economics, politics, and social sciences.