Desalination is the process of separating salt from seawater to produce fresh drinking water. This is done in one of two ways - thermal desalination (heating the seawater and condensing the vapour to produce fresh water) or reverse osmosis (pushing seawater through a membrane to separate salt and impurities from the fresh water).
With the amount of rainfall expected to continue decreasing, and our population on the rise, seawater desalination, a completely non-rainfall dependent source of water, is being adopted as part of an integrated approach to managing water supply and demand.
Where does Veolia have seawater desalination projects?
In Australia, Veolia is responsible for the long term operations of the Gold Coast Desalination Plant in Queensland and Sydney's Desalination Plant. Both of these energy efficient plants use reverse osmosis, as this process consumes less energy, producing cheaper fresh water with a better final product.