Dear Robert, congratulations for this very clear article in which you address few issues that are very important for the future development regarding the topic "water". Please allow for few comments: 1. Active now since more that 40 years as independent consultant in water treatment I surely do not belong to the "Young Water Leaders" by age, but would like to share the experience accumulated in many years and contribute to resolve problems under discussion in this group. 2. Facing the worldwide water stress, possible solutions should be considered in the sequence:    a. reasonable use of potable water, means avoiding wasting water as it happens today in many areas;    b. reuse/recycle water after the treatment/purification of wastewater as mentioned also in your article;    c. produce potable water by treating contaminated surface water or e.g. desalination of brackish water or seawater. For the majority of these cases the most successful, resilient and resource efficient solutions can be based on membrane technology, if the related plants are designed, manufactured and operated adequately. 3. You cite IDA and the 19,000 desalination plants worlwide. But in our opinion the statement that these plants "require a lot of energy" is not retraceable . Using modern and up-to-date technology this kind of seawater desalination plants can be operated in the range of about 2.5 to 3.5 kWh per cubic meter of permeate (potable water), and  -  considering plants with a production capacity in the size of more about 50,000 cubic meter per day  -  for costs of less than one Euro per m3, OPEX nad CAPEX included. 4. As you correctly state researchers are working to create less costly technology. But the expectation addressing higher production you cite need for a long lapse of time. More promisng seems to be the implementation of technology that is available today but is not used as it could be by not retraceable reasons. This addresses i. a. the seawater intake systems, like e.g. subsurface units that allow to reduce or avoid chemical consumption, reduce energy demand and improve the resource efficiency. The same applies for seawater pumping systems or IT-based control devices and methodologies. Future development should consider beside the hugh centralized plants in particular also decentralized plants. The technology is available. Best regards Thomas Dr.-Ing. Thomas Peters DPC senior technology consultant

Published by

Dear Robert, congratulations for this very clear article in which you address few issues that are very important for the future development regarding the topic "water". Please allow for few comments:

1. Active now since more that 40 years as independent consultant in water treatment I surely do not belong to the "Young Water Leaders" by age, but would like to share the experience accumulated in many years and contribute to resolve problems under discussion in this group.

2. Facing the worldwide water stress, possible solutions should be considered in the sequence:    a. reasonable use of potable water, means avoiding wasting water as it happens today in many areas;    b. reuse/recycle water after the treatment/purification of wastewater as mentioned also in your article;    c. produce potable water by treating contaminated surface water or e.g. desalination of brackish water or seawater. For the majority of these cases the most successful, resilient and resource efficient solutions can be based on membrane technology, if the related plants are designed, manufactured and operated adequately.

3. You cite IDA and the 19,000 desalination plants worlwide. But in our opinion the statement that these plants "require a lot of energy" is not retraceable . Using modern and up-to-date technology this kind of seawater desalination plants can be operated in the range of about 2.5 to 3.5 kWh per cubic meter of permeate (potable water), and  -  considering plants with a production capacity in the size of more about 50,000 cubic meter per day  -  for costs of less than one Euro per m3, OPEX nad CAPEX included.

4. As you correctly state researchers are working to create less costly technology. But the expectation addressing higher production you cite need for a long lapse of time. More promisng seems to be the implementation of technology that is available today but is not used as it could be by not retraceable reasons. This addresses i. a. the seawater intake systems, like e.g. subsurface units that allow to reduce or avoid chemical consumption, reduce energy demand and improve the resource efficiency. The same applies for seawater pumping systems or IT-based control devices and methodologies.

Future development should consider beside the hugh centralized plants in particular also decentralized plants. The technology is available.

Best regards

Thomas

Dr.-Ing. Thomas Peters

DPC senior technology consultant 

1 Comment