Seventeenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

Desalination of seawater produces around 5000 million m3/year. The rapid increase in the desalination unit in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Mediterranean Sea, Coastal waters of US, Australia and China can be attributed to the limited fresh water resources worldwide. This paper shows the main environmental concerns of the desalination units in GCC like the brine reject systems and their effect in terms of salinity and temperature to the surrounding areas, the emissions generated due to fossil fuel in the thermal power plant to generate the steam used for heating process in the desalination units. Also it highlights the chemical used in the desalination process and their environmental impact. A list of feasible, economic, and environmental friendly mitigations is proposed to reduce the environmental risk of these concerned and bring it to ALARP (As Low As Reasonably Practical).