How to use centrifugal pumps to desalt marine water

This is an antique process made easy by modern technology.

Every year the global water crisis gets worse, people and company are trying to figure out how to solve it. Many people don’t have access to clean water and that affects in a negative way both health and economy.

According to Water.org, the organization founded by Matt Damon, many lives are at risk, here below some of the numbers:

• 844 millions people don’t have access to clean and drinkable water.
• 80% of wasted water is not collected or treated.
• More than 3,5 millions people die every year because of an inadequate water supply, or mainly because water is not treated and safe

Climate change has a massive impact on the quantity of water available, and on quality as well. In the third world, many countries have already exhausted their ground waters, some others are not safe anymore due to raising concentration of heavy metals, fertilizers, pesticides, bacteria and pollution.

How to reuse sea water

It is important to reuse water in many ways, for residential or industrial use. According to World Health Organization, for every dollar spent to purify water, the economical income is 4 dollars. That is why reuse water is the right choice.

Desalination is a water treatment known for a long time, three centuries at least, from when drinkable water was needed during long journeys on board of ships. Sea water is not ready to drink or to be used in agriculture or industry. The quantity of salt dissolved is too high, as well as the quantity of magnesium, manganese sulphate, calcium, potassium, magnesium bromide. With desalination, sea water become usable.

The role of our pumps in the desalination process

The centrifugal pumps are used on the reverse osmosis plants. Sea water is collected from an opening on the seafloor and separated from the macro particles and filtered, then it reaches the lifting pumps to be pushed towards the desalinator placed on the top of a peak. To begin with, a first group of pumps push the fluid towards three stages of purification. After that, it is time for a multistage pump which rises up the pressure and move water towards the membrane filter, the real responsible for desalination.

The membrane filter works through reverse osmosis, an artificial process which move particles in an opposite way compared to the natural one. High pressure allows to separate salt molecule, which remain trapped inside the membranes while water comes out purified.

CDR Pompe and water wesalination

Water desalination was very expensive in the past but today, thanks to technology, is easier and cheaper. A great know-how is required to know how to treat water, and CDR Pompe has it. The CDR’s pumps used for water treatment are:

1. The mechanical seal pump CCL/CCL-B
2. The lined centrifugal pump with mechanical seal UCL/UCL-B

Those are centrifugal pumps in polypropylene, a material which has a great compatibility with sea water, usually very corrosive for other materials. If the fluids treated are clean, to keep it cheaper, it is possible to use magnetic drive pumps like STN and ETN EVO.

Contact us to know more about pumps dedicated to water treatment or other applications.