Provision of Desalinated Irrigation Water by the Desalination of Groundwater within a Saline Aquifer

Irrigated land accounts for 70% of global water usage and 30% of global agricultural production. Forty percent of this water is derived from groundwater. Approximately 20%–30% of the groundwater sources are saline and 20%–50% of global irrigation water is salinized. Salinization reduces crop yields and the number of crop varieties which can be grown on an arable holding. Structured ZVI (zero valent iron, Fe0 pellets desalinate water by storing the removed ions as halite (NaCl) within their porosity. This allows an “Aquifer Treatment Zone” to be created within an aquifer, (penetrated by a number of wells (containing ZVI pellets)). This zone is used to supply partially desalinated water directly from a saline aquifer. A modeled reconfigured aquifer producing a continuous flow (e.g., 20 m3/day, 7300 m3/a) of partially desalinated irrigation water is used to illustrate the impact of porosity, permeability, aquifer heterogeneity, abstraction rate, Aquifer Treatment Zone size, aquifer thickness, optional reinjection, leakage and flow by-pass on the product water salinity. This desalination approach has no operating costs (other than abstraction costs (and ZVI regeneration)) and may potentially be able to deliver a continuous flow of partially desalinated water (30%–80% NaCl reduction) for $0.05–0.5/m3