Water desalination becoming more realistic

[Rog]

There's probably a place for desalted seawater in meeting the nation's future water needs, but research is needed to reduce the costs and impact on the environment, the National Research Council says.

Water desalination becoming more realistic - CNN.com

[WDI]

Several news articles on seawater desalination reveal that desalination technology is little understood by most journalists, local water managers, politicians and environmental groups. In searching for renewable potable water or supplementing current sources few are aware that there is more than one desalination technology.
When evaluating a desalination project Reverse Osmosis is typically the process considered. Yet, there is a viable and proven alternative in distillation with lower costs.

The Advanced Vapor Compression Desalination Process is an advanced and highly environmentally friendly desalination process, an alternative, single performance, and lower maintenance process compared to Reverse Osmosis. The system is based on proven flash distilling principles but features an innovative, highly efficient, and compact design. Additionally, it offers a unique advantage in the treatment of salt byproducts.

The system produces outputs of either valuable crystalline salt or concentrated brine. The
process is optimized for the desalination of seawater drawn from wells below the sea floor and not returning the brine to the sea. The process has modular abilities and can be expanded to meet future requirements in water demand or designed and built at the start for higher volume. A basic plant design can operate on solar, thermal, nuclear or traditional energy sources. Each unit is optimized from an initial engineering site study to account for different environmental and structural needs. A basic stand-alone unit of 1 acre-foot per day has a footprint of approximately twenty feet in diameter. The larger the plant water volume the lower the cost is per acre-foot. The plant energy consumption is on the order of about 5 to 20 kw per1000 gallons produced based on the design, volume produced and type of energy.

The system can also be used in industrial treatment and recovery of effluent water. The life cycle of the plant is based on a 25 year time line which can be extended through proper preventable maintenance and overhaul.

[spadlet]

There's some information on wikipedia with a number of desalination techniques. The page isn't verified to full wikipedia standards but it might be worth a read for people just wanting some introductory information.

Desalination - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Series2]

Originally Posted by WDI

The plant energy consumption is on the order of about 5 to 20 kw per1000 gallons produced based on the design, volume produced and type of energy.

Over what period of time?

If you meant kWh then your claim sounds implausible, given that water has a molar heat of vaporization of 40.7 kJ/mol. Your heat recovery would have to be better than 99.5%.

Why should the type of energy be a factor? Is a kWh of wind power somehow different from a kWh from a coal-fired station?

Originally Posted by WDI

The life cycle of the plant is based on a 25 year time line which can be extended through proper preventable maintenance and overhaul.

Preventable maintenance?

I take it that you're talking about the "Passarell" Process. Have you actually built one yet?