What Is Desalination?

Desalination (desal) is the process of removing dissolved salts and minerals from seawater or brackish water. It is also called desalting or by its shortened name, desal. Desalination produces drinking water and concentrate (the water that contains the salts that were removed in the desalination process, which is sometimes called brine). The dominant technology used in desalination today is reverse osmosis, which involves forcing water through semi-permeable membranes to remove salts and other impurities.

Most of the modern interest in desalination is focused on developing cost-effective ways of providing fresh water for human use in regions where the availability of fresh water is, or is becoming, limited.

Although seawater desalination projects often face some environmental and economical challenges, these challenges can be successfully addressed by carefully selecting the project site, by implementing state-of-the-art intake and concentrate discharge technologies, and by incorporating energy-efficient and environmentally sound equipment and systems.