A new vision for desalination

A lively discussion ensued at the recent Western Australia Joint Chemical Engineering Committee (WA JCEC) AGM and dinner, following a presentation by special guest speaker Neil Palmer, CEO of the National Centre of Excellence in Desalination.

The argument for desalination became very topical following the worst drought in Australia’s history (the Australian Millennium Drought 1997 -2010), affecting all parts of southern and eastern Australia, where severe water restrictions were put in place to help conserve dwindling water supplies.

In response, decisions were made to build large seawater desalination plants in Perth, Gold Coast, Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne with enough capacity to say goodbye to water restrictions.  While sounding like an obvious solution, the plants come at a heavier cost to traditional supplies and with the recent heavy rains in the eastern states and South Australia replenishing water storages, the question is being asked – do we need desalination?

WA JCEC Chair, Kelvin Taylor said that while Palmer touched on the impact of low rainfall in Western Australia’s water supply and the new dependence on desalination, the main thrust of his presentation was to counter the main arguments against desalination.

“This he did, while also showcasing the research that is being done through the NCEDA that will improve desalination technology, both here and overseas.

“But the focus of the research is on the requirements for Australian desalination in areas such as remote groundwater installations.”

Palmer’s presentation shared NCEDA’s new vision for desalination stating that it is an efficient and sustainable augmentation of traditional water sources to provide security against the natural variability of rainfall, and the potential future impact of climate change.  Desalination also offsets the declining traditional source water quality and population growth.

The NCEDA also provided a summary from The Centre for Water Research at the University of Western Australia, whose investigations into the impact of the Perth seawater desalination plant discharge on Cockburn Sound found that “the effluent from the desalination plant is so highly diluted that it does not have measurable impact on stratification or dissolved oxygen in the deep basin (>10m) of Cockburn Sound.”

Palmer also highlighted that all energy used for the big Australian desal plants will be offset with wind and solar energy and will have a very low operating carbon footprint. 

Established in 2009 the National Centre of Excellence in Desalination Australia manages $20m of research funding from the National Urban Water and Desalination Plan over five years.  Comprising 13 Australian universities and CSIRO, the Centre leads desalination research to encourage development of Australian technology and capability, find solutions for regional Australian and reduce desalination’s environmental footprint.