Eco Environmentally Friendly Sustainable Desalinated Water Production: Turning a Challenge into an Opportunity

The seawater desalination is one of the prevalent methods to supply the freshwater demand. The discharge of saline wastewater from desalination facilities, known as brine, is a significant environmental challenge in the desalination process. This brine has the potential to be used as a raw material with the primary objective of the salt production process, subsequently augmenting desalinated water produced within this process. This paper provides a theoretical design of cost-effective sustainable desalination, by proposing a cost-effective process of harvesting high-value products including sodium chloride, magnesium chloride, calcium chloride, lithium carbonate, sodium hydroxide, and chlorine gas as the main commercial products, besides the desalinated water as a by-product. According to the results, regarding the economic analysis of the proposed methodology for brine discharge management, the B/C ratio of the entire process is about 1.31, demonstrating significant economic efficiency and desirability. The proposed platform can achieve a considerable economic gain and introduces the simplest technologies available to be used in every developing country especially in arid and semi-arid climates, aiming to produce eco-environmentally friendly desalinated water. This way, free desalinated water, the by-product of the process, may contribute to reducing water scarcity and approaching the sustainability goals.