1 AFFORDABLE DESALINATION COLLABORATION 2005

Increasing demand for allocated freshwater resources, declining freshwater quality, drought, and the need for a diverse water supply portfolio are among the many reasons that people across the United States and the world are looking to the sea as a potential supply. However, in the United States, the high cost of desalination has historically hindered interest in seawater as a possible fresh water supply. Sensitive to the issue of cost as a limitation to realizing large scale implementation of seawater desalination, engineers, scientists, and the manufacturing industry have worked over the last two decades to reduce both the capital and operating cost associated with desalinated water. The Affordable Desalination Collaboration (ADC) is a California non-profit organization composed of a group of leading companies and agencies in the desalination industry that have agreed to pool their resources and share their expertise in the mission to realize the affordable desalination of seawater. Using a combination of proven technologies, the ADC has demonstrated that seawater reverse osmosis can be used to produce water at an affordable cost comparable to other supply alternatives. As a result, the ADC is pleased to announce their mission is a success. Desalination is affordable and can provide another cost effective tool to water agencies seeking a diverse water supply portfolio. The ADC’s demonstration scale seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) plant completed over six months of testing at the US Navy’s Seawater Desalination Test Facility in Port Hueneme, California in March of 2006. Three membranes were tested while varying flux and recovery to estimate the most affordable operating point. The most affordable operating point was estimated by calculating the net present value for each tested condition, accounting for both capital and operating costs. The results of this work are presented herein