{"id":33985,"date":"2023-03-17T08:48:40","date_gmt":"2023-03-17T03:18:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=33985"},"modified":"2025-04-20T03:27:40","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T21:57:40","slug":"desalination-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/desalination-technology\/","title":{"rendered":"Desalination Technology"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What is Desalination Technology?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>RO Desalination<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Environmental Issues with RO Desalination Plants<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Is RO Water Good for Health?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Alternative to RO Desalination Technology<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>News Summary<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>About National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT)<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Chennai-based National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) will set up a Desalination plant in Lakshadweep.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is Desalination Technology?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Desalination refers to the <i><strong>removal of salts and minerals from water<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<li>Today there are two main types of desalination technologies \u2013\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Reverse Osmosis<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Thermal Desalination<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>RO Desalination<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Reverse Osmosis (RO) desalination <i><strong>uses the principle of osmosis to remove salt and other impurities, by transferring water through a series of semi-permeable membranes<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u00a0<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi-test.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/media\/content\/ckeditor\/2023\/03\/23\/image-20230323142610-1.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Image Caption: Reverse Osmosis<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Osmosis involves \u2018a solvent\u2019 (such as water) naturally moving from an area of low solute concentration, through a membrane, to an area of high solute concentration.<\/li>\n<li>A reverse osmosis system applies an external pressure to reverse the natural flow of solvent and so seawater or brackish water is pressurized against one surface of the membrane.<\/li>\n<li>This pressure causes salt-depleted water to move across the membrane, releasing clean water from the low-pressure side.<\/li>\n<li>Seawater has <strong>Total Dissolved Solids (TDS)<\/strong> i.e., a measure of salinity, close to <strong>35,000 parts per million (ppm)<\/strong>, or equivalent to 35 g of salt per one litre\/kg of water.<\/li>\n<li>An <i><strong>effective network of RO plants reduces this down to about 200-500 ppm<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<li>There are about 18,000 desalination plants in the world across 150 countries and <i><strong>nearly half of Israel\u2019s water is sourced through desalination<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Environmental Issues with RO Desalination Plants<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Desalination is an expensive way of generating drinking water as it requires a high amount of energy.<\/li>\n<li>The other major environmental challenge it poses is the <strong>deposition of Brine (highly concentrated salt water) along the shores<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The brine being deposited along the seashore is <i><strong>triggering changes along the coastline and reducing the availability of prawn, sardine and mackerel<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<li>Hyper salinity along the shore <i><strong>affects plankton<\/strong><\/i>, which is the main food for several of these fish species.<\/li>\n<li>Moreover, the <i><strong>high-pressure motors needed to draw in the seawater end up sucking in small fish and life forms<\/strong><\/i>, thereby crushing and killing them.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Is RO Water Good for Health?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Earlier, <i><strong>there were concerns that desalinated water was devoid of vital minerals such as calcium, magnesium, zinc, sodium, potassium and carbonates, referred to as TDS<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<li>Highly desalinated water has a TDS of less than 50 milligrams per litre, which is pure, but does not taste like water.\n<ul>\n<li>However, <i><strong>anything from 100 mg\/l to 600 mg\/l is considered as good quality potable water<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>In today\u2019s times, <i><strong>most RO plants put the water through a \u2018post-treatment\u2019 process whereby salts are added to make TDS around 300 mg\/l<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<li>Several of the home-RO systems that are common in affluent Indian homes also employ post-treatment and add salts to water.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Alternative to RO Desalination Technology<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Low-temperature Thermal Desalination (LTTD) \u2013<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>LTTD technique works on the principle that water in the ocean 1,000 or 2,000 feet below is about 4<sup>0<\/sup> C to 8<sup>0<\/sup> C colder than surface water.<\/li>\n<li>Salty surface water is collected in a tank and subject to high pressure (via an external power source).<\/li>\n<li>This pressured water vaporizes and this is trapped in tubes or a chamber.<\/li>\n<li>Cold water plumbed from the ocean depths is passed over these tubes and the vapor condenses into fresh water and the resulting salt diverted away.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>LTTD Plants in India \u2013<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>In 2005, <i><strong>National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), set up a 100,000 litre-a-day plant in Kavaratti, Lakshadweep<\/strong><\/i> islands and this has been providing water to about 10,000 residents.<\/li>\n<li>There are also 1.5 lakh litres a day plants proposed at Amini, Androth, Chetlat, Kadamat, Kalpeni and Kiltan islands.<\/li>\n<li>There are plants of similar capacity proposed at Minicoy and Agatti islands.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>News Summary<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) is planning to set up a Desalination plant in Lakshadweep. The plant will be emission free.<\/li>\n<li>Currently <i><strong>the desalination plants, each of which provides at least 100,000 litres of potable water every day, are powered by diesel generator sets<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<li>The need for diesel power to reduce the water pressure means that the process is not fossil-fuel free.\n<ul>\n<li>Also, diesel is a precious commodity in the islands as it has to be shipped from the mainland critical for powering the electric grid.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><i><strong>Currently there are five desalination plants in operation in the Lakshadweep islands<\/strong><\/i>. Four more were expected to be functioning in the coming months.<\/li>\n<li>The <i><strong>proposed self-sustaining plant \u2014 the 10th \u2014 is expected to be ready later this year<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>About National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT)<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The NIOT was established in <strong>1993<\/strong> as an autonomous society under the <strong>Ministry of Earth Sciences<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Objective \u2013<\/strong> <i><strong>To<\/strong><\/i> <i><strong>develop reliable indigenous technologies to solve various engineering problems associated with harvesting of non-living and living resources in the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)<\/strong><\/i> which is about two-thirds of the land area of India.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Headquarters \u2013<\/strong> Chennai, Tamil Nadu<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1) What is Osmosis in simple terms?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>In biology, osmosis is the movement of water molecules from a solution with a high concentration of water molecules to a solution with a lower concentration of water molecules, through a cell&#8217;s partially permeable membrane.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2)<\/strong> <strong>What is Brackish Water?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Brackish water is a broad term used to describe <strong>water that is more saline than freshwater but less saline than true marine environments<\/strong>. Often these are transitional areas between fresh and marine waters. An estuary, which is the part of a river that meets the sea, is the best known example of brackish water.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/energy-and-environment\/national-institute-of-ocean-technology-to-set-up-green-self-powered-desalination-plant-in-lakshadweep\/article66627730.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>NIOT to set up green, self-powered Desalination Plant in Lakshadweep<\/u><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/mumbai-desalination-plant-7063528\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Indian Express<\/u><\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Desalination refers to the removal of salts and minerals from water.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":33986,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-33985","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}