Abstract
Saudi Arabia desalination plants account for about 50% of the world desalination capacity, but also cause problems of marine and air pollution. In coastal plants, water and thermal pollution occur. In inland plants, problems arise with the disposal of the rejected concentrated brine. If the plants are of the multi-stage flash distillation type, air pollution problems arise due to the large amounts of fuel burned to generate the necessary energy for desalting. Water pollution of desalination plants is caused by the disposal of the hot brine. The average concentration of the total rejected seawater at the Jeddah desalting plant is 47.5 ppt, which represents an increase of 21.8% in salt concentration. The sulfur dioxide emission at the plant was 0.13 ppm in a 24-hr period, close to the Saudi Meteorology and Environmental Protection Administration (MEPA) standard of 0.14. There were 6 violations in the nitrogen oxides concentration at the plant. Ozone and carbon monoxide were well below the permitted MEPA standard. To reduce environmental damage by desalination plants temperature differences should be minimized by cooling, excessive dispersion of the rejected brine is required, seawater pretreatment processes may be adapted with the withdrawal of the minimum amount of chemicals, and desulfurization in the fuel burner or use of low sulfur fuels is needed. (Geiger-PTT) 35 082311004