Screening the hurdles to sea disposal of desalination brine around the Mediterranean

摘要

As desalination develops, the impacts of brine ocean disposal rise increasing concerns. Here we present a screening of the hurdles to brine disposal through pressurized submerged outfalls in the broader Mediterranean region. Using first-tier dilution models, we analyze how different environmental quality standards reflect in terms of initial outfall velocity. We show that achieving moderate dilution is usually not problematic, while higher environmental quality standards would often require excessively high initial velocities. Although this may not be so overwhelming a problem as to undermine the feasibility of brine discharge, it indicates possible hurdles to arise in the permitting of a project.