Post-Treatment of Desalinated Water-Chemistry, Design, Engineering, and Implementation

The quality with which water is released from desalination plants increases continuously. However, prior to the post-treatment step, desalination permeates are slightly acidic, contain very low buffering capacity, and are very soft. As such, the water may be aggressive and corrosive to infrastructure, resulting in adverse health and economic effects. Consequently, a post-treatment step in which the chemical stability, buffering capacity and mineral content of the water is adjusted, is invariably practiced. This chapter reviews the knowledge accumulated in the last decades on desalination post-treatment processes. It covers fundamental chemistry aspects related to the aqueous, gaseous and solid phases relevant to post-treatment processes. The chapter also provides a thorough explanation on required water quality criteria; the advantages and disadvantages of currently applied post-treatment processes are detailed, engineering and cost considerations are discussed, state of the art post-treatment alternatives are covered, and contemporary research trends are listed.