Desalination and Water Treatment

Instructor: Prof. Ibrahim S. Al-Mutaz,   Room 2B57,   Phone [phone]
  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)

Topics to be covered through the semester

No	Topics	wks
1	Introduction (Water problem in Saudi Arabia, water characteristics, seawater chemistry: (composition, salinity, alkalinity, gases dissolved), brackish water, desalination terminology).	2
2	General Description of Water Treatment Processes	1
3	Scale Formation and Prevention(definition of scales, main scale component, factors affecting scaling, scale control methods, scale cleaning methods	2
4	Water Hardness and Chemical Processes for Hardness Removal	2
5	Desalination Processes and Methods of Classifications (Technical comparison between various processes).	1
6	Thermal Desalination Processes (Flash distillation, multiple effect distillation (MED), multistage flash distillation (MSF), vapor compression (VC), combination distillation, solar distillation).	3
7	Membrane Processes (Electrodialysis (ED), reverse osmosis (RO)).	3
8	General Engineering Considerations (Cost estimation of desalination processes, minimum energy requirements, waste brine disposal, de-carbonation and de-aeration).	1

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.
   4. K.S. Spiegler and A. D. K. Laird, "Principles of Desalination Part A", 2nd Edition, 
       Academic Press, 1980.
   5. K.S. Spiegler and A. D. K. Laird, "Principles of Desalination Part B", 2nd Edition, 
       Academic Press, 1980.
   6- H. T. El-Dessouky and H. M. Ettouney, "Fundamentals of Salt Water Desalination", 
       1st Edition, Elsevier, 2002.