Timeline of water desalination
From Timelines
This is a timeline of water desalination.
Contents
Big picture
| Time period | Development summary |
|---|---|
| 16th century | Desalination contraptions based on evaporation are incorporated into boats, allowing them to be self-sufficient in the event of an emergency.3 |
| 1930s | Thermal distillation begins use in several large plants, primarily in the Middle East.1 |
| 1960s | Membrane technologies arise as a result of a breakthrough in the use of polymer films for separating salt from water in the late 1950s and early 1960s.3 |
| 1970s | Fuel oil cost increases very sharply, affecting strongly the desalination cost, especially in processes with high specific energy consumption. A great effort is made in many countries to shift from desalination by distillation to desalination by other means.5 Low-pressure multi-effect distillation (MED) and improved reverse osmosis (RO) evolve as two new technologies capable to desalt seawater.5 By the second half of the decade, the RO process is considered in many regional developing programs as an option for small and large seawater desalination plants.5 |
| 1990s | The continuous improvement and cost reduction in RO technology increases, in most cases, the economic benefits of SWRO over the distillation process.5 |
Full timeline
| Year | Event type | Details | Geographical location |
|---|---|---|---|
| ? | In his Meteorologica, Aristotle writes that "Salt water when it turns into vapour becomes sweet and the vapour does not form salt water again when it condenses".1 | ||
| 1955 | Multi-stage flash distillation (MSF) appears as the first large-scale modern desalination process.4 | United States | |
| 1959 | Desalination capability of cellulose acetate film is demonstrated by Breton and Reid.1.3 | ||
| 1959 | The first multi-effect distillation (MED) plant is constructed.4 | Aruba | |
| 1960 | The first synthetic and functional reverse osmosis membrane is produced at the University of California, made from cellulose acetate. This membrane is capable of blocking the salts while allowing water to pass through it at a reasonable rate of flow under high pressure.3 | ||
| 1962 | Asymmetric cellulose acetate membrane is developed.1 | ||
| 1963 | Loeb and Sourirajan show that an asymmetric cellulose acetate membrane can be used for desalination. The permeabilities of these early membranes are low and RO membranes are considered a novelty separation technique rather than a soution to desalination.3 | ||
| 1963 | First practical spiral-wound module is developed by General Atomics.1 | ||
| 1964 | In Spain, the first desalination plant is constructed in Lanzarote.4 | Spain | |
| 1965 | The first commercial desalination plant using reverse osmosis is inaugurated in California at the Coalinga desalination plant, used for brackish water.3 | United States | |
| 1965 | An 1 MGD (3,785 m3/year) MSF dual-purpose plant starts operating in Eilat, Israel, with an atual water cost amounted to about $0.3m3. The relatively low cost is due to the very low fuel-oil prices if $10-15/ton prevailing at the time.5 | ||
| 1966 | Israel publishes a joint feasibility study of a 200 MW - 100 MGD (378,500 m3/year) nuclear dual-purpose plant.5 | ||
| 1967 | The first commercially successful hollow fiber module is released.1 | ||
| 1972 | The interfacial composite membrane is developed.1 | ||
| 1974 | The first sea water reverse osmosis desalination plant comes into operation.4 | Bermuda | |
| 1975 | The first commercial interfacial composite Riley at Fluid Systems is installed at Jiddah seawater plant.1 | ||
| 1978 | The first fully aromatic thin film composite (FT-30) is developed.1 | ||
| 1981 | Cadotte patents the design for the three-layer TFC membrane that would later become industry standard. The layer provides high permeability while maintaining selectivity for water.3 | ||
| 1986 | Low pressure nanofiltration membrane becomes widely available.1 | ||
| 1998 | Grace-Davison and Mobil install the first large hyperfiltration solvent separation plant at Beaumont Texas refinery.1 |
Meta information on the timeline
How the timeline was built
The initial version of the timeline was written by User:Sebastian.
Funding information for this timeline is available.
