WSP00451

• File Number: 8273.100
• Description: Colorado River Basin Salinity Control - Federal Agency Reports - BOR
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 11/1/1969
• Title: Cost Analysis of Six Water Desalting Processes
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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II SUMMARY

The capital requirements and cost of producing fresh water were

determined for six leading desalination processes; the results are given

in Table 1. In the body of the report the major cost elements of each

conversion process are identified. The effects of varying important proc-

ess parameters on water costs are shown for each process.

The costs estimated for the six subject processes must be viewed
with varying degrees of confidence, dependent on such factors as the

size of existing plants, the level of knowledge, and the potential for

further improvement. Studies such as this one involve considerable ex-

trapolation of the scale of production and deal with a number of operat-

ing variables that have not been rigidly fixed. The reliability of cost
data is probably highest for the multistage flash distillation process,

since the largest desalination plants constructed to date have been of

that design, and the process has received considerable attention from a

research and engineering standpoint. The cost reliability would probably

be progressively slightly less for the vapor compression, vertical tube

evaporator, electrodialysis, vacuum-freeze vapor-compression, and reverse

osmosis processes.

Both the variation in capital and operating costs and the different

quality of inland brackish waters indicate that each process will probably

have areas of application where it is superior to the other processes. An

estimate is given in Table 2 of the feed water properties and plant capac-

ities that would provide the most favorable application area for each

process.

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