Desalination Plant and Brine Discharge, Different Arrangements for the Arabian Gulf

This study is concerned about the effects of brine discharge into the Arabian Gulf and desalination plants location also. The major concern is the Arabian coastline of the Gulf countries which started from Kuwait whole way to United Arab Emirates. Different scenarios for desalination plant and brine discharge management in the Arabian Gulf are discussed using mass balance computations. The Arabian Gulf countries occupy about 3.3% of the world area and had 1.0, 2.0 and 2.2% of the total world population in the years 1950, 2008 and prognosis for year 2050 respectively. The desalination capacity in the Gulf is about 45% of the world capacity.

In this study, three groups were assigned namely A, B and C to ease this paper discussions and study different possibilities between groups to minimize or reduce the brine impacts. Group A is the coastline towards Red Sea for Saudi Arabia only about 1600 km from southwest and it counts about 59% of Saudi desalination capacity. Group B is approximately 600 km long including Saudi Arabia (about 41%), Kuwait, Bahrain, smaller side of Qatar. Group C is also about 600 km long and counts the summation of United Arab Emirates desalination capacities and the largest part of Qatar desalination.

As a result, group A has brine capacity about 6.9 million m3/day in 2008 and about 23 million m3/day in the year 2050. Currently group B has a brine capacity of about 9.8 million m3/day and in year 2050 it will have increased to approximately 31 million m3/day. Group C currently has a brine capacity of almost 10 million m3/day and in year 2050 it will have increase to approximately 26 million m3/day. Today group B and C are almost equal as regards to the amount of brine discharge but the group B will in the future have 5 million m3/day higher brine discharge than group C. Finally, comparison between group B and C and strategies for choosing more brine discharge to group C and less for group B. Also cooperation is need between the Gulf countries to minimize damages of the Gulf coastline and water.