Treatability of a Highly-Impaired, Saline Surface Water for Potential Urban Water Use

Abstract

As freshwater sources of drinking water become limited, cities and urban areas must consider higher-salinity waters as potential sources of drinking water. The Salton Sea in the Imperial Valley of California has a very high salinity (43 ppt), total dissolved solids (70,000 mg/L), and color (1440 CU). Future wetlands and habitat restoration will have significant ecological benefits, but salinity levels will remain elevated. High salinity eutrophic waters, such as the Salton Sea, are difficult to treat, yet more desirable sources of drinking water are limited. The treatability of Salton Sea water for potential urban water use was evaluated here. Coagulation-sedimentation using aluminum chlorohydrate, ferric chloride, and alum proved to be relatively ineffective for lowering turbidity, with no clear optimum dose for any of the coagulants tested. Alum was most effective for color removal (28 percent) at a dose of 40 mg/L. Turbidity was removed effectively with 0.45 µm and 0.1 µm microfiltration. Bench tests of Salton Sea water using sea water reverse osmosis (SWRO) achieved initial contaminant rejections of 99 percent salinity, 97.7 percent conductivity, 98.6 percent total dissolved solids, 98.7 percent chloride, 65 percent sulfate, and 99.3 percent turbidity.

Household water purification system comprising cartridge filtration, UVC disinfection and chlorination to treat turbid raw water

“…On day 26, when the turbidity of the raw water was 12.5 NTU, the water after cartridge filtration presented 1.13 NTU of turbidity. Pontius [34] showed effective turbidity removal with filters which had smaller size openings, such as 0.45 µm and 0.10 µm. Afkhami et al [12] showed high removal of turbidity with pleated cartridge filters, however they adopted a pressure drop in the system limited to 1 bar and water treatment with artificial turbidity, caused by the addition of kaolinite.…”

Efficient solar-driven steam generation for clean water production using a low-cost and scalable natural rubber composite sponge

“…It is also comparable to the permeate water obtained from conventional seawater desalination by reverse osmosis (SWRO). 48 The comparative performances (Table S2 †) suggest that the NRIO-20 composite sponge has the potential for use as a solar evaporator for the production of clean water.…”