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California Desalination Report, with more than a grain of Part 2 of subjectivity

Is desalination affordable for Californians?
The PI report indicates that one of the main reasons for "lack of maturity California desalination is its lack of accessibility. Currently, the cost of desalination seawater in California is relatively higher than that of traditional sources of low cost water (groundwater and rivers) and the recovery and reuse water for irrigation and industrial use. In fact, the cost of traditional local groundwater supplies in some parts of the state
is as low as $ 0,5 / 1,000 gallons ($ 160/acre foot [AF]). However, many sources of low cost is very low (less than 30 percent of water resources throughout the state.) For example, despite the fact that over 40 percent of current water supplies in Orange County are in this category, water agencies in the region are engaged in the exploration desalination and almost all aquifers supply of fresh water available today for this low cost are not writing and more. Most companies utilities in southern California currently purchase of imported water
Colorado River delta and the bay at a rate of $ 1.5 for 1,8 / 1,000 gallons ($ 600/AF 500) and the cost of these water supplies is likely to increase by 10-15 percent over the next five years because of the additional costs necessary to meet more stringent drinking water
quality regulatory requirements recently enacted by the U.S. EPA.

Based on the 2006 California Water load survey published in July 2006 by Black & Veatch (survey_businesswire.htm http://www.bvaeservices.com/news/articles/jul06/ca_), the average monthly residential rate of 1,500 cubic feet
drinking water was $ 36.39 ($ 3.24 / 1,000 gallons or $ 1.058 / AF). The survey also indicates that the costs of residential water supply increased 16.7 percent since 2003.

Meanwhile, the cost of desalinated water has fallen steadily over the past 10 years and most projects included on the initiative of desalination in California, said the report by early IP, must produce water at a cost 2.6 million to 3.7 / 1,000 gallons
($ 850 to $ 1,200 / AF). These costs are calculated on the basis of an asset life of 30 years and your unit costs of $ 0.08/kWh to $ 0.11/kWh. Therefore, if we follow the advice jewel in the report that intellectual property, "the cost comparison must be made on a comparable basis, the cost of water desalinated sea production would be similar to the total costs for additional water supply in the future new sources of supply in many parts of the state, especially for municipalities and utilities in southern California based on imported water.

The report uses the argument that IP water desalination and brackish water is generally more expensive than recycled water production and implementation of water conservation measures. This argument, however, is doomed to failure the failure by the fact that water conservation
and reuse does not create new sources of drinking water, are simply a tool to maximize sound beneficial use of water resources. Under conditions of prolonged drought, when the available water resources can not be replenished at the rate of use, reuse and conservation can help aggressive, but can not completely eliminate the need for new resources and rationing of water. Simply
words, if your garden is dry, you can not solve its water problems in the homes of the reuse or retention of more water from wells that do not.

A concrete example is the period of prolonged drought in California in the '90s, which created the need to urgently accelerate the development work of a number of desalination projects water, although some municipalities such as Santa Barbara, had
reduced its water consumption by nearly 40 percent of aggressive conservation measures. Although relatively high cost of desalination of sea water (4.6 $ 6,100,000 / 1,000 gallons or $ 1,500 to $ 2,000 / AF) and available at cost recovery low and reuse measures combined with a period of several
wet years after the long drought marginal benefits of water desalination sea at that time, water conditions, the costs and challenges
California faces today are very different.

The differences are mainly reduced significant cost of desalination of seawater and brackish water in the past 10 years and progressively higher costs associated with the dramatic increase in the reuse and water conservation throughout the state after the first low-cost/high-effect series of water recycling and conservation measures. While early the 90 conservation and reuse are rare wide for most of the municipalities in California, the prolonged drought during this period required many utilities to implement low-cost
water reuse and conservation measures that are 15.5 percent of their portfolios of water. Utilities that have already re and water conservation programs will not be completely capable of taking another 10 percent or 15 of water saving by low-cost reuse and conservation measures. Apply the next level of more sophisticated equipment and reuse of technology for intensive conservation measures and water savings goals of 20-25 additional percent at a price that, in some cases, may apply to desalination.

Moreover, the benefits of the cost of seawater desalination more beyond the production of new water supply. If desalination is to replace the use of over-pumping of coastal aquifers or interior, or eliminate stress in the estuary of the environment and sensitive habitats of the river, then the higher cost of this alternative water supply would also be offset by environmental benefits. Similarly, desalination provides other
benefits in times of drought where tradition water supply may be unreliable and shortages may also increase their costs relatively low.

Desalination "break the back" of the California energy system?

Desalination is more intense than the processing power of conventional sources of fresh water, because additional energy is required to overcome the natural osmosis pressure reverse osmosis (RO) membrane water source salt (sea or brackish
water). Table 1 shows the energy consumption associated with procurement different alternatives for California's water. The table does not include costs associated with raw water treatment of surface water imported from the Colorado River Project and water provided by the State
Project and product costs of water delivery solutions for a proposed.

It is interesting to note that the report contains a series IP of factual inaccuracies that the authors superficial understanding factors that affect demand for energy associated with desalination and contribution to costs of the total costs of water production. In the baseline with energy projects in Israel, Middle East and Spain, where the salinity of sea water of about 20 percent over the Pacific Ocean along the California coast, the report concludes that although the best available technologies are used, the energy demand for seawater desalination production is 12 kWh per 1000 gallons (3912 kWh / AF). In fact, from the Pacific Ocean Salinity lower to places mentioned, the energy needed to produce desalinated water varies between 8.6 and 11 kWh / 1,000 gallons (2.800 to 3600 kWh / AF).

The report said IP nothing about the remarkable efforts of Californiabased Affordable Desalination Collaboration (ADC), which recently completed a study to show what is currently available in the state of desalination technology, the arts can do to reduce energy consumption for seawater desalination is a non-ADC profit composed of corporations and government bodies involved in desalination. The
The experts reviewed the results of operation over a year installation of seawater desalination demonstration CDA Located in the center of U.S. research marine desalination at Port Hueneme, California validate the energy consumption values in Table 1 and indicate also that in the not too distant electricity consumption for the production of seawater can be reduced even further (See www.affordabledesal.com).

The report contains another IP inaccuracy important implications for the feasibility of seawater desalination in California. Without the data normalization desalination plants abroad for specific site conditions in California (labor, construction, equipment costs, etc.) The report notes that electricity accounts for 44 percent of total production costs of a membrane water desalination typical seawater
plant and 60 percent cost of thermal desalination. In fact, due to differences in each site, the energy cost for seawater desalination in California would only 20-30 percent of the total cost of water production. The report draws the wrong conclusion that the IP fluctuations in international fuel markets will dramatic effect on the feasibility of desalination, the problem is the fact that rising energy costs will also have the same effect on all alternatives additional water supply in California. According to a report prepared by
California Energy Commission, the actual power of California's water sector (including water and wastewater treatment and transport) amounted to 13.341 million MWh. Assuming a conservative unit energy consumption for desalination of sea water 11 kWh / 1,000 gallons,
total energy needed to produce 450 million gallons of drinking water is 4950 MWh, an increase only 0.037 percent of current energy demand California's water sector. Based on these facts, it is wrong to conclude that the current initiative desalination "break the back" of energy supply in the California system, and could be used for example as an objectively valid argument for rejecting the viability of desalination of seawater
California. This assessment also broadcasts the report argues that intellectual property "Desalination facilities exacerbate climate change by using energy-intensive "And that" could contribute to a greater dependence on fossil fuels.

Also note that the objective analysis of energy consumption for sea water desalination should be noted that if the energy consumption for the production of desalinated water is expected to decline (10-20 percent during the next five years due to advances in membrane technology and energy recovery), total energy demand for conventional water treatment increase (15-20 percent) in the same time due to energy demand associated with additional treatment (such as micro-or ultra-filtration, ozonation, disinfection UV, etc) would be required to meet regulations for the latest generation of security
drinking water.

About the Author

Nikolay Voutchkov has over 20 years of experience in the field of seawater desalination and water and wastewater treatment. Published within ERI, a Clean Technology company that promotes Energy Recovery.

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