Desalination refer to the removal of salts and minerals, as in soil desalination, which also happens to be a major issue for agricultural production.
The Sydney Desalination Plant is a potable drinking water desalination plant that forms part of the water supply system of Greater Metropolitan Sydney. When operating at full capacity, the Sydney desalination plant supplies up to 15% of the drinking water supply for Sydney. It was the largest water supply project for Sydney, Australia's biggest city, since Warragamba Dam was opened in 1960 by the Sydney Metropolitan Water Sewerage and Drainage Board. Desalination is a process of removing salt usually involving waters from the sea. But this process can also be done using brackish water and/or waste water for the purpose of producing water suitable for consumption by human beings. Much of the water available in this planet comes from the oceans.  Thermal desalination uses heat, often waste heat from power plants or refineries, to evaporate and condense water to purify it. In the most advanced desalination plants, such as those built by IDE, water is pretreated in order to improve the efficiency of the plants. Desalination was first used by Greek sailors in the 4th century BC to evaporate seawater and create drinking water. Today there are two main desalination technologies – membrane (RO) and thermal (MED, MVC and MSF) desalination. Reverse Osmosis (RO) desalination uses the principle of osmosis to remove salt and other impurities, by transferring water through a series of semi-permeable membrane More generally, desalination may also refer to the removal of salts and minerals, as in soil desalination, which also happens to be a major issue for agricultural production. Salt water is desalinated to produce fresh water suitable for human consumption or irrigation. One potential by-product of desalination is salt. Water there and at Queensland's Gold Coast Desalination Plant and Sydney's Kurnell Desalination Plant is withdrawn at only 0.1 m/s (0.33 ft/s), which is slow enough to let fish escape. The plant provides nearly 140,000 m 3 (4,900,000 cu ft) of clean water per day. The largest desalination plant in South Asia is the Minjur Desalination Plant near Chennai in India, which produces 36.5 million cubic meters of water per year. A second plant at Nemmeli, Chennai is expected to reach full capacity of 100 million litres of sea-water per day in March 2013. Water there and at Queensland's Gold Coast Desalination Plant and Sydney's Kurnell Desalination Plant is withdrawn at only 0.1 m/s (0.33 ft/s), which is slow enough to let fish escape. The plant provides nearly 140,000 m 3 (4,900,000 cu ft) of clean water per day. The Hadera seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination plant in Israel is the largest of its kind in the world. The project was developed as a build–operate–transfer by a consortium of two Israeli companies: Shikun and Binui, and IDE Technologies. Water there and at Queensland's Gold Coast Desalination Plant and Sydney's Kurnell Desalination Plant is withdrawn at only 0.1 m/s (0.33 ft/s), which is slow enough to let fish escape. The plant provides nearly 140,000 m 3 (4,900,000 cu ft) of clean water per day. Desalination is not modern science. Desalination/distillation is one of mankind's earliest forms of water treatment, and it is still a popular treatment solution throughout the world today. In ancient times, many civilizations used this process on their ships to convert sea water into drinking water. Today, desalination plants are used to convert sea water to drinking water on ships and in many arid regions of the world, and to treat water in other areas that is fouled by natural and unnatural contaminants. Thermal desalination mimics the natural process of the water cycle – evaporation from the ocean, accumulation in the atmosphere, condensation as rain or snow, and collection. Since heat is vital in thermal desalination, the process is often linked to power plants and refineries to use waste heat. There are three main types of thermal desalination – vapour compression (VC), multi-effect distillation (MED) and multi-stage flash distillation (MSF). Desalination was first used by Greek sailors in the 4th century BC to evaporate seawater and create drinking water. Today there are two main desalination technologies – membrane (RO) and thermal (MED, MVC and MSF) desalination. Reverse Osmosis (RO) desalination uses the principle of osmosis to remove salt and other impurities, by transferring water through a series of semi-permeable membranes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurnell_Desalination_Plant http://www.qwhatis.com/what-is-desalination/ http://www.ide-tech.com/desalination/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desalination https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desalination https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desalination http://water.usgs.gov/edu/drinkseawater.html http://www.ide-tech.com/desalination/
what is a desalination plant