Why desalination of salty wells is the solution?

Providing sufficient water for the needs of the people is the main concern of every government concerned with the interest of its country and its people. All possible solutions must be reached to make maximum use of the available possibilities. Therefore, desalination of salty wells is the most appropriate solution to the problems that most countries in the world are currently experiencing in their water profile.

The Kingdom is interested in strengthening its position in this field, as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ranks first in the world in water desalination, with its production reaching (1006.6)/ million cubic meters. It also has one of the largest groundwater reserves in the world, ranked ninth after Sudan. Wells are considered the oldest source in Saudi Arabia, also called Jleeb. It relies on it to feed the population of the provinces and remote villages.

Well water desalination methods

There are many ways to desalinate water from wells, and they are as follows:

First: Thermal desalination

It is also known as distillation, and it is one of the oldest methods of treating seawater and saline water to turn it into drinkable water. As for the resulting steam, it is condensed to obtain fresh water. It is worth noting that thermal energy is produced by steam generators, or energy from waste, or energy resulting from the backpressure of steam in power plants. The most common thermal desalination processes are:

• Multi-stage flash distillation.
• Multi-effect distillation.
• Vapour-compression evaporation.
• Cogeneration.

Second: Solar water desalination

Desalination using electrolytic membrane separation In this type of desalination. Water is separated from the salts using electric current, through a selectively permeable membrane. Where the electric current carries dissolved salt ions with it. This method is characterized by the amount of energy consumed depends on the amount of salt in the water. Therefore it is Suitable for water that contains a small amount of salt. as for seawater, this method requires large amounts of energy.

Third: Desalination using reverse osmosis.

This method is one of the common methods of water desalination. This method is used to separate water from the salts, but it requires very high pressure. In order to force the water to move through thick films that are a thousand times thicker than the thickness of graphene. As the best new desalination method is desalination using graphene, this method requires less pressure. Through which water can be purified at a lower cost, and works faster than the systems currently used.

Why is reverse osmosis desalination the best?

Because it is considered the lowest cost and the highest production of desalinated water and it is approved by the quality organization.

Desalination of salty well water through desalination plants dedicated to desalinating well water. Whether surface wells or subterranean artesian wells is not an easy matter.

Also, the elemental analysis must first be done in a specialized laboratory. Since water contains many elements, including total dissolved salts and a group of minerals, their proportion must be taken into account.

How well water desalination plants work

Well water desalination plants work to purify and desalinate water by passing several important cycles

1. It begins with drawing raw water from underground wells to a reservoir before the well water desalination plant, which is the first stage actually.
2. Then the water is pumped into a multi-media vise to remove and purify the impurities and then to the cotton stages.
3. Chlorine and chemicals are injected into raw water to get rid of bacteria and contaminants.
4. The pre-desalination stage for well water to protect all the following stages with minimal effects and drainage from salts during reverse osmosis.
5. Reducing the pH ratio in raw water before it enters the membrane elements of desalination plants to desalinate well water.
6. Then the chlorine is disposed of in the raw water before pumping the water to the advanced stages in the stations as membranes RO membranes to desalinate the raw water.
7. Then it goes through an osmotic process to get rid of the salts and transfer the resulting desalinated water to the next stage.
8. Equalizing and increasing the alkalinity of water to the required ratios between 7.5 to 8.2 or 8.5, with a symbol for pH in (PH). This number may vary when using well water in agriculture.

Uses of desalination plants for salty wells

First: Desalination of water from saline wells for use in agriculture

The need for desalination of water from wells for agriculture differs from the rest of the needs. According to what the plant needs and tolerates, each type independently. Where the need of different types of plants for salt varies, as well as the percentage of alkalinity. Each type of which has a certain possibility in addition to its need for the rest of the elements in the water and soil. Some plants need less than 200 total dissolved salts in addition to not being exposed to the sun.

View the 300 m3 cactus farms plant in Al Kharj Daily production Design and operation of Carewater from here.

Second: its use in the arts of construction

Whether you have a gypsum casting plant or a construction site, salts affect the quality and quality of construction works, their hardness, and adhesion, especially concrete works.

Third: Projects for the sale of desalinated water

Is well water safe to drink? The answer to this question implicitly depends on the results of the necessary laboratory analyzes.

First, arrange a visit to the competent authorities to find out the conditions and you may also need to search for production lines for plastic containers and bottling bottles.

Fourth: Restaurants and cafes

It is indispensable to use desalinated water in restaurants and cafes. The presence of a well water desalination plant saves many ongoing costs.

View a 5 cubic meter well water desalination plant at Dunkin’ Donuts Carewater installation and commissioning here.

What before designing desalination plants for wells?

The most important main step before proceeding with the purchase or design of desalination machines for wells is the work of elemental analysis. It is necessary to know the main elements, as this step avoids us increasing costs and may show us that it is not possible to design a station at all. In the event that the well is in a residential area, an additional water analysis must be done. Which is a micro-bulge analysis, to find out if there is any mixing with the veins of wells and sewage, and to detect the presence of germs in the water.

Components of well water desalination plants and their prices

The components of desalination wells and the cost of the plant depend on two important elements that are necessary to know the prices of wells desalination devices:

First, an analysis of all the components of the well’s water to be desalinated, not just the total dissolved salts, in the specialized water laboratory. Among the elements are calcium, iron, magnesium, nitrates, nitrites, free chlorine, and finally bacteria.

Secondly, determining the capacity of the water produced after the treatment of desalination plants for water wells. Among the components are high and low-pressure pumps. Pumps for chemicals and chlorine additives for the sterilization process of well water, and cellulosic desalination membranes. Also, cotton filters and activated charcoal, in addition to the sand filter or the so-called media, according to the hardness of the well’s water.

Components of a well water desalination plant

The desalination plant consists of a number of stages, devices, and pumps for desalination

1. Feed pump for the station. It feeds the station by drawing water from the raw water tank, numbering 1 or 2 according to the required specifications.
2. The sand filter is a multi-media water filter with 4 types and sizes of sand and gravel, in addition to activated carbon.
3. Water filters or a group of water filters of cotton less than 5 microns and lies in the treatment and purification of insoluble impurities in the raw water and the remaining from the sedimentation stage.
4. Chlorine injections for sterilization (Sodium hypochlorite) to eliminate bacteria and germs, and the percentage is determined according to previous analyses.
5. Removal and purification of chlorine (Sodium metabisulfite) come in the form of a powder and chlorine. It must be removed before the stage of membranes and reverse osmosis.
6. Scale treatment (Anti Scalene) should be added to protect the membranes from clogging and damage.
7. Sulfuric acid injection lowers the pH of the raw water prior to desalination.
8. The high-pressure pump starts from 7 bar up to 70 bar in the desalination plants of brine wells and desalination plants for seawater.
9. Pump for the acidity and alkalinity neutralization system in water.
10. The installation of an automatic membrane washing system (Flushing) is added to water desalination plants. That treats high salts, and this process takes place automatically when the plant stops.
11. The electrical control panel to operate the desalination plants in the wells or sea station.

What is the method of analyzing well water before desalination?

• To analyze well water, buy a new water bottle, preferably from opaque glass.
• Turn on the plunger and make sure that stagnant water has escaped. And that the water source is the wells themselves.
• Take the sample directly and on the same day to a special water laboratory. For elemental analysis in less than 24 hours.
• Do a Microbiological analysis if the wells are within the residential urban area.

What is the importance of training to operate water desalination plants?

Operating and following up on desalination plants and following up on material indicators in a desalination plant requires training someone. To follow up on the change of relevant spare parts. Training is one of the conditions for designing and supplying plants. Any company or organization places on the customer when selling and supplying desalination plants. This is to follow up on the percentages and rates of chemicals added and thus turn on and off the system.

The site conditions of desalination plants

• A well-ventilated place or room must be provided. Providing a tank before the water station and after the station.
• The establishment of a well-ventilated isolated room. And air conditioning may be required for the desalination plant if the ventilation is not good.
• Securing a water supply tank before the station, so that water can be drawn into it from the well.
• The produced fresh water desalination plant tank is usable after treatment and final desalination from desalination plants.
• Providing electricity for 3 lines to operate chemical injection pumps, high-pressure water pumps, and low-pressure water pumps in treatment plants.