Affordable Desalination Collaboration ADC

The Affordable Desalination Collaboration was conceived in California by a group of public agencies and private companies. It was established as a nonprofit organization. ADC existed through the completion of the project work and then plans called for it to either be disbanded or refunded to conduct additional studies. Members of ADC contributed funds, services, and/or equipment used in the demonstration. The organization had 

The founders of ADC were stakeholders in the production of safe drinking water. They recognized that the growth in global population had strained available water supplies to the point where seawater desalination must be included in future planning. One of the concerns expressed by the public and other interested parties about the planned use of seawater desalination was the high consumption of energy required to drive the process (Seacord et al., 2006). 

2 Theoretical Lower Limit of Energy Consumption for Seawater Reverse Osmosis 

The ADC conducted its study on Pacific Ocean seawater in central California. The typical salt content of seawater at the test location is 34,000 mg/L TDS and the temperature ranges from 12-20°C. 

If the seawater intake pump is added to this calculation, the energy consumption would increase to 1.94 and 1.88 kWh/m of permeate at 13 and 20°C, respectively. 

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