Reuse and management of brine in sustainable SWRO desalination plants

Reverse osmosis is a widely used and rapidly growing desalination technology. Despite the many benefits the technology has to offer, still challenging to all desalination plants is the environmentally sensitive effects attributed to the discharge into the sea of the rejected brine, which can very often severely damage the receiving environment, and air pollutant emissions attributed to the energy demand of the process. The list of potential impacts can be extended; however, the available information on the marine discharges alone indicates the need for environmental mitigation measures. In order to safeguard a sustainable use of the desalination technology, there is a need to develop, in the short term, new management proposals to achieve a minimization of the impact and valorization of brine. These alternatives should be both economically viable and effective, not only for new setting up plants, but also for those already installed. An adequate treatment sequence has been proposed and developed ...