The Role of Aquifer Media in Improving the Quality of Seawater Feed to Desalination Plants

This study focuses on the role of the aquifer media as a tool to improve the characteristics of seawater used to supply desalination plants, quantifying this improvement from a considerable number of physicochemical parameters. The evolution of both physicochemical and microbiological characteristics through the aquifer media has been determined by comparing the composition of seawater samples taken via direct intake with those taken over the aquifer. The principal improvements are due to the process of filtration. It includes up to a 95 % reduction in turbidity and up to a 50 % reduction in SDI. Other parameters are also notably reduced (TOC is cut on average by 60 %, and DO by 80 %), due to bacterial activity in the aquifer. It is also important to highlight that only a short distance of water flow through the aquifer is needed to achieve this improvement. If it used the seabed as the filter material, it would be necessary a minimum thickness of a few meters due to biological activity involves a significant increase in the TOC. An understanding of the filtration processes occurring within the aquifer provides a natural analogue on which future improvements in artificial pre-treatment can be based.