Sustainable Desalination through Brine Mining: Turning an Environmental Challenge into an Economic Opportunity

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  • Seawater desalination is one of the prevalent methods to supply freshwater demand. The discharge of saline wastewater from desalination facilities, known as brine, is a significant environmental challenge in the desalination process. This brine has the potential to be used as a raw material with the primary objective of salt production, subsequently augmenting desalinated water produced within this process. This paper presents a theoretical design for cost-effective and sustainable desalination through integrating multiple salt extraction methods. This procedure includes sequential evaporation and precipitation to harvest high-value products (sodium chloride, magnesium chloride, calcium chloride, lithium carbonate, sodium hydroxide, and chlorine gas) as the main commercial products, along with desalinated water as a co-product. According to the results of the economic analysis of the proposed methodology for brine discharge management, the benefit-cost (B/C) ratio of the entire process is about 1.31, demonstrating significant economic efficiency. This economic balance between desalinated water production and mineral recovery indicates that desalination costs can be significantly offset by extracted salts revenue. The proposed platform can achieve a considerable economic gain and introduce the simplest technologies available to use in every developing country, especially in arid and semi-arid climates, aiming to produce environmentally friendly desalinated water. Beyond its economic benefits, this method reduces the stress on groundwater resources and reduces pollution by providing an additional water source and brine volume reduction, contributing to environmental sustainability. This way, desalinated water production becomes economically viable and environmentally friendly, supporting water scarcity reduction and approaching sustainability goals.