Sustainable & Cost-Effective CO2 Solutions for Desalination Plants from GAS LAB

Author: Miguel P Smurawski      Posted on: 28-12-21


The UN World Water Development Report 2021 states that over 2 billion people reside in areas with severe water stress. Around 45% of the global population does not have safe sanitation facilities. The report predicts that humanity is about to face its worst-ever global water deficit of 40% by 2030 and factors like rapid climate change and industrialisation could further worsen the situation. Water scarcity is one of the biggest challenges facing us today, and it's our moral imperative to focus on sustainable water solutions to meet the demands of our future generations.

To overcome this situation, desalination plants have seen a steep rise in terms of capacities and new installations across the globe. The most popular and efficient way to convert seawater to potable water is Reverse Osmosis (RO). But the problem with this technology is that it’s expensive, resource-intensive, and energy-inefficient.

As we move towards a sustainable future, efficient desalination solutions that overcome these hurdles are the need of the hour.

GAS LAB – Offering Safer and Greener CO2 Solutions for Desalination Plants

GAS LAB offers complete end-to-end, bespoke CO2 solutions for desalination plants. Some of our key offerings include:

• CO2 Storage

• Dosing – Carbonic acid Injection System for pH control

• On-site CO2 Generation

• CO2 Capture from FLUE gases for IWPP

Let’s take a closer look at these solutions:

1. CO2 Storage

GAS LAB offers a complete range of CO2 storage pressure vessels equipped with in-house developed H/L safety systems to avoid pressure shock during loading and unloading of CO2. We offer insulation options depending upon the customer’s requirement such as Polyurethane foam (PUF) and Vacuum-insulated.

PUF tanks are outfitted with standalone refrigeration systems to maintain tanks inside pressure change caused due to slow ambient heat entry depending on the ambient temperature. Our PUF tanks are economical and are most opted by desalination plant owners. Vacuum insulated tanks are not required to be equipped with refrigeration systems as the heat entry in vacuum insulated tanks is minimal and pressure difference inside the tank is rare.

Our storage tanks are available in horizontal and vertical configurations to suit varying layout requirements. We manufacture tanks in both Low-Temperature Carbon Steel and Stainless Steel materials and the capacity of our tanks ranges from 0.5 to 150 MT. With our complete in-house design and manufacturing facility, tanks can be specifically designed and configured depending on your requirements.

2. Dosing – Carbonic acid Injection System for pH control

Most of the desalination plants use the traditional method of dosing CO2 gas in the water through external mixers followed by degasifiers. This method of gas dosing makes the plant costlier as well as cumbersome. With CO2 gas dosing, the dissolution efficiency depends on many factors such as pressure, temperature, turbidity, and residence time. The efficiency achieved by CO2 gas dosing generally remains in the range of 60% to 80% resulting in loss of CO2 in the process.

With decades of experience with CO2 and desalination water application, GAS LAB offers a Carbonic acid Injection system in place of gas dosing. The CISx® (Carbonic acid Injection) is an innovative dosing solution from GAS LAB that offers superior CO2 dissolution with guaranteed dissolution efficiency of 95% (minimum). This method provides accurate pH control and maximum conversion efficiency with overall cost-effectiveness when compared to total project cost factors such as lesser footprint, elimination of external absorbers & degasifiers, saving on CO2 requirement, lesser O&M, etc.

CISx® offers a quick response to unstable water The system is quick, safe, and easy to install and doesn't require external equipment like degassers or absorbers. It also protects your piping and other downstream equipment as there is no free CO2. CISx® offers a significant reduction in per m3 of desalinated water cost.

3. Onsite CO2 Generation

When we talk about using CO2 in desalination plants, the cost and availability of the same become a concerning point for the owner/operators. With the current scenario of increasing CO2 shortages mainly in the Middle East, where fossil fuel and natural gas is easily available at considerably cheaper rates, opting for on-site CO2 generation plants becomes a more cost-effective and viable solution to meet the process requirements.

GAS LAB offers customised CO2 generation systems to suit the plant requirements with low OPEX & CAPEX, thereby having a short payback period. We help our customers to calculate the make or buy analysis for their requirements. Our CO2 generation plants are constructed with stainless steel and fitted with marine-grade paint to suit seashore installations. Our modular design helps in reducing space requirement, civil work and installation time, thereby cutting overall costs. Fitted with PLC, our CO2 generation systems are fully automatic, easy to operate, monitor, and maintain along with a remote monitoring option to provide real-time support 24x7.

With in-house generation plants, our customers reduce their overall carbon footprint and move towards NET-ZERO.

4. Carbon Capture from FLUE Gases for IWPP

In our latest quest for contributing towards NET-ZERO emissions along with making desalination plants self-sustainable, we help integrated water and power plants reduce their overall emissions through Flue Gases by retrofitting existing systems with our Flue Gas based Carbon Capture plants.

Our Carbon Capture plants are fully customised and designed according to the Flue Gas analysis of the plant to eliminate/pacify harmful components and recover food-grade liquid CO2. Depending upon the requirement, plants can be designed for the required capacity and further lines can be added as well to recover more in the future if required. This innovative method enables you to use waste CO2 for remineralisation, offering the following advantages:

• Reduce per m3 desalinated water cost

• Combat volatile availability and prices

• Reduced carbon emission and support your NET-ZERO goals

• Secure your upstream supply chain

• Flexible turn down capacities

• Guaranteed food-grade liquid CO2

• Eliminate purchasing CO2 for mineralisation, thereby reducing the overall cost of operation.

GAS LAB – Paving the Way for Sustainable Desalination Technologies

In a world where water scarcity is a significant and growing problem, desalination has emerged as the answer. With over six decades of technical experience and having delivered application-oriented solutions in over 25 countries, GAS LAB offers innovative carbon-dioxide solutions to pave the way towards sustainable desalination.

Some of the top highlights of our specialised solutions for the desalination industry are:

• Highest construction standards to meet the demanding requirements of the desalination industry. All our construction materials are optimised for the saline atmosphere of a desalination plant, ensuring long and trouble-free services.

• Our solutions are designed to meet international standards and codes, and we provide exclusive service and support all through the product's lifecycle.

• Low maintenance costs and easy operation make our products suitable for desalination plants of all sizes.

• Our innovative carbon capture and utilisation solutions are helping desalination plants reduce operational costs, increase efficiency while achieving net-zero emissions.

• Our in-house manufacturing capabilities and R&D centre help deliver innovative solutions for the desalination industry.

• U Stamp / R Stamp / CE marking available on request.

• Design according to ASME / PED standards

• Manufacturing in accordance with world-class third party agencies.

Contact our team to discuss your project details and discover the best cost-effective solutions to enhance the efficiency of your desalination plants.