Designing a desalination plant for a tourist city located in the Mediterranean Spanish coast

During this year 2005, drought has become one of the greatest problems in the Spanish Southeast and even some cities have suffered water restrictions trying to solve, at least partially, the unexpected situation of last summer. In addition to the direct problem these restrictions bring about the citizens life, there is an indirect inconvenience added since in many cases, the prosperity of these cities depends on the tourist sector. This work is focused on Cullera, a city located in the Mediterranean Spanish coast which belongs to the Comunidad Valenciana region. In Cullera, both beaches’ quality and good and warm weather lead to an increasing population in the summer season up to six times the usual number. The water consumption in Cullera can be classified into three different groups such as domestic, industrial and agricultural use. The water from the wells located in the area has distinctive characteristics such as the high salinity, the slight organic matter presence and the nitrates content. These characteristics are the starting points to design a desalination plant to supply the population needs. The aims of this work are: (1) to select the design parameters necessary to performance of a desalination plant; (2) to establish the scheme of the plant adapted to the city reality; (3) to calculate the design proposed.