Print this page An Introduction to Water Desalination
J. Paul Guyer, P.E., R.A., Fellow ASCE, Fellow AEI
Course Outline
1. Site Selection
2. Water Source Selection
3. General Process Selection
4. Distillation/Condensation Techniques
5. Membrane Techniques
6. Ion Exchange Techniques
This course includes a multiple-choice quiz at the end, which is designed to enhance the understanding of the course materials.
Learning Objective
At the conclusion of this course, the student will:
- Learn about water storage and system modularization;
- Learn about the typical desalination flowsheet;
- Learn about typical reverse osmosis desalination processes;
- Learn about cellulose acetate and polyaromatic amide membranes and their use in membrane desalination processes;
- Learn about electrodialysis reversal desalination technology;
- Learn the importance of energy conservation and efficiency when evaluating desalination processes;
- Learn about high temperature distillation/condensation techniques;
- Learn how multiple effect evaporation units are applied;
- Learn the characteristics of multistage flash-evaporation units;
- Learn about low-temperature distillation processes and how to apply them;
- Learn when to use vapor compression techniques in water desalination;
- Learn about applications of a multistage flash distillation facility;
- Learn about the importance of waste heat recovery evaporation process;
- Learn the fundamentals of the vapor-compression vertical-tube distillation system; and
- Learn the principles of electrodialysis desalination.
Intended Audience
This course is intended for engineers and other design and construction professionals wanting an introduction to the technologies and processes applicable to a project/site where water desalination is an operational requirement.
Benefit for Attendee
This course will give engineers and others an introduction to technologies, processes and techniques for treating saline water, such as from the sea, to provide potable or suitable process water to meet the operational requirements of facilities and activities.
Course Introduction
This is an introduction to the technology and processes applicable to conversion of saline water to appropriate domestic and process uses.
About Course Author
Paul Guyer is a registered mechanical engineer, civil engineer, fire protection engineer and architect with over 35 years experience in the design of buildings and related infrastructure. For an additional 9 years he was a senior-level advisor to the California Legislature on infrastructure and capital outlay issues. He has designed and supervised the design of hundreds of construction projects requiring the preparation of detailed working drawings and specifications for federal, state and local public agencies and private companies. He is a graduate of Stanford University and has held numerous national, state and local positions with the American Society of Civil Engineers and National Society of Professional Engineers.
Course Content
The course content is contained in the following PDF file:
An Introduction to Water Desalination
Please click on the above underlined hypertext to view, download or print the document for your study. Because of the large file size, we recommend that you first save the file to your computer by right clicking the mouse and choosing "Save Target As ...", and then open the file in Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you still experience any difficulty in downloading or opening this file, you may need to close some applications or reboot your computer to free up some memory.
Course Summary
This course will give you an introduction to the technologies that will allow you to address challenges presented by projects/activities where water of required potable/process quality must be obtained from local saline sources.
Quiz
Once you finish studying the above course content, you need to take a quiz to obtain the PDH credits.
DISCLAIMER: The materials contained in the online course are not intended as a representation or warranty on the part of PDH Center or any other person/organization named herein. The materials are for general information only. They are not a substitute for competent professional advice. Application of this information to a specific project should be reviewed by a registered architect and/or professional engineer/surveyor. Anyone making use of the information set forth herein does so at their own risk and assumes any and all resulting liability arising therefrom.
