Growing demand for clean water likely to influence research on desalination technologies

DUBLIN, IRELAND, May 22, 2007 -- Research and Markets announces the addition of Frost & Sullivan's new report Advances in Desalination Technologies to their offering. This Frost & Sullivan research titled Advances in Desalination Technologies provides an overview of developments of membrane separation and thermal separation technologies in the environmental industry, along with key drivers, influencing market factors, challenges, and analysis of trends witnessed in the industry.

The following technologies are covered in this research:
• Membranes technologies
• Thermal technologies

Technology Overview
Growing Demand for Clean Water Likely to Influence Research on Desalination Technologies
Desalination refers to any of the several processes that remove excess salt and other harmful minerals from water in order to obtain pure water. This treated water obtained from seawater or brackish water could be reused for irrigation and if the quality of water is high, it could even be used for drinking purposes. "In wastewater treatment, the treated water can be reused for industrial processes such as cooling water, boiler feed, process water, and heavy construction," according to the analyst of the study. "There are various technologies that could be used for desalination such as thermal processes (distillation and multistage flash), membranes processes, freezing, geothermal, and others."

With the increase in population, it has become mandatory to treat water and wastewater to obtain pure water. The soaring need for clean water is the driving factor for advances in desalination technologies to purify water and wastewater. The pace of advancements in desalination of water and wastewater has been high in the last five years and the scientific community is still researching various methods to improve existing desalination techniques.

Advances in Related Technologies Likely to Positively Impact Market Potential
Due to the significant advancements in membrane and thermal technologies, the unit price of treated water has been reduced by approximately 50 percent or more. However, the pace of advancement of membrane separation slowed down when the Tampa Bay desalination project in Florida failed to perform well -- mainly due to inefficient pretreatment facilities. Despite this, there have been many advances in pre-filtration and improvements in membrane design, with respect to increasing the surface area, productivity, lowering of cost, and the adoption of nano-particles in these membranes.

Researchers at Fairleigh Dickinson University have undertaken a study on increasing 8 in-membranes to 16 in-membranes in order to increase the area of the membrane for better water reuse and desalination. In addition, a major membrane manufacturer is looking at ways to improve membrane performance by looking at alternative approaches to membrane design, configuration and elements. "These advancements are likely to continue and there could possibly be significant cost reductions and stability in terms of technology by 2015," explains the analyst. "Additionally, the increase in the number of desalination units in various parts of the world by 2015 is also likely to contribute in terms of achieving technological stability."

Key Topics Include:
1. Executive Summary
2. Technology and Application Viewpoint
3. Development and Applications of Desalination Technologies
4. Technology Impact Analysis
5. Key Patents and Contacts
6. Decision Support Database

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c57583.

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