Desalination plant discharge calculator

The impacts of a desalination plant discharge on the marine environment depend on the physical and chemical properties of the desalination plant reject streams, and the susceptibility of coastal ecosystems to these discharges depending on their hydrographical and biological features. Therefore, a good knowledge of both the effluent properties and the receiving environments is required in order to evaluate the potential impacts of desalination plants on the marine environment. The brine flows are considerably large, generally up to 40% (for membrane based technologies, like reverse osmosis, RO) and up to 90% (for thermal technologies, like multi-stage-flash, MSF, including cooling water) of the intake flowrate. Thus either almost as large or even considerably larger flows than the required freshwater water flow. Salinity and temperature directly influence the density of the effluent. The various density differences between the brine and the receiving water represented by the buoyancy flux causes different ...