Dependent Indicators for Environmental
Evaluations of Desalination Plants
Ghanima Al-Sharrah and Haitham M. S. Lababidi
1 Introduction
Availability of data is essential for effective environmental assessment study. In
desalination studies, environmental data are not commonly available (Roberts et al.
2010). Most of reported data in environmental assessment of desalination operations
are qualitative (low, moderate, above limits, etc.), incomplete and in most cases
inconsistent. For instance, salinity and ion concentrations of the discharged brine
are not enough to assess the environmental impact of the desalination facilities.
Temperature of the brine discharge, for example, is an important variable that has
a direct effect on other variables that affect the marine life, such as the amount
of dissolved oxygen. Another example is salinity, which is frequently reported by
environmental engineers in different methods that are not directly comparable. It
may be reported as mass fraction of dissolved salt (in ppm or g/kg), conductivity (in
Siemens per meter, S/m), or as TDS, which is expressed as total dissolved solids or
total dissolve salts (Boerlage 2011).
The selection of appropriate measures of environmental performance for desalination depends on the nature of the environmental concerns, the type and quantity
of available information, and the degree of accuracy required in the representation.
Different environmental indicators are suitable for different stages of process
development, design or operation. Some indicators are general and can be applied to
a wide range of processes and industries, while others are more specific to the unit
under consideration. Selection of environmental indicators is not an easy task. Prior
to environmental assessment, indicators should be screened to eliminate irrelevant
G. Al-Sharrah () · H. M. S. Lababidi
Chemical Engineering Department, College of Engineering & Petroleum, Kuwait University,
Safat, Kuwait
e-mail: g.sharrah@ku.edu.kw; haitham.lababidi@ku.edu.kw
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
R. Bruggemann et al. (eds.), Measuring and Understanding Complex Phenomena,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59683-5_9
119
Evaluations of Desalination Plants
Ghanima Al-Sharrah and Haitham M. S. Lababidi
1 Introduction
Availability of data is essential for effective environmental assessment study. In
desalination studies, environmental data are not commonly available (Roberts et al.
2010). Most of reported data in environmental assessment of desalination operations
are qualitative (low, moderate, above limits, etc.), incomplete and in most cases
inconsistent. For instance, salinity and ion concentrations of the discharged brine
are not enough to assess the environmental impact of the desalination facilities.
Temperature of the brine discharge, for example, is an important variable that has
a direct effect on other variables that affect the marine life, such as the amount
of dissolved oxygen. Another example is salinity, which is frequently reported by
environmental engineers in different methods that are not directly comparable. It
may be reported as mass fraction of dissolved salt (in ppm or g/kg), conductivity (in
Siemens per meter, S/m), or as TDS, which is expressed as total dissolved solids or
total dissolve salts (Boerlage 2011).
The selection of appropriate measures of environmental performance for desalination depends on the nature of the environmental concerns, the type and quantity
of available information, and the degree of accuracy required in the representation.
Different environmental indicators are suitable for different stages of process
development, design or operation. Some indicators are general and can be applied to
a wide range of processes and industries, while others are more specific to the unit
under consideration. Selection of environmental indicators is not an easy task. Prior
to environmental assessment, indicators should be screened to eliminate irrelevant
G. Al-Sharrah () · H. M. S. Lababidi
Chemical Engineering Department, College of Engineering & Petroleum, Kuwait University,
Safat, Kuwait
e-mail: g.sharrah@ku.edu.kw; haitham.lababidi@ku.edu.kw
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
R. Bruggemann et al. (eds.), Measuring and Understanding Complex Phenomena,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59683-5_9
119