Saline Water Conversion Program

The Federal Saline Water Conversion Program is administered by the Department of the Interior through the Office of Saline Water, and the primary objective of that program is to develop low-cost processes for converting saline water to fresh water. This is a most difficult problem—not because of any intricate or new chemistry, physics, or engineering involved, but because of that term, bw cost Solution of this problem will assure this nation, and the world, of an inexhaustible supply of sparkling potable water. 

Objectives and Status of the Federal Saline Water Conversion Program... 

The objective of the saline water conversion program, need for continuing research, status of the research and 11 1 the demonstration... 

While shipboard supplies of water are vital to navies and the maritime industry, the saline water conversion program of the Department of the Interior is interested in a different phase of the over-all problem. Aboard ship the primary interest is a reliable supply of water the cost of the water is of secondary consideration. The interest of the Office of Saline Water is centered on land-based plants that can produce fresh water from the sea at low cost, the latter being the important factor. 

An accurate barometer of the nationwide interest in the saline water conversion program is provided by the number of requests received from civic bodies, public officials, industrial organizations, and private citizens asking consideration for their area as a site for one of the authorized plants. Nearly 200 applications have been received from cities and communities in every state on the coastal perimeter, from 12 inland states, and from Alaska and Hawaii. 

Badger-Hickman Centrifugal Distillation Techniques and Equipment/ U. S. Dept. Interior, Saline Water Conversion Program, Progress Rept. 12 (November 1956). 

The solvent extraction process has not yet undergone pilot plant investigation, and all the above estimates are based on small laboratory or bench scale experiments. If further testing under practical conditions substantiates the laboratory observations, it appears that the solvent extraction process definitely has an area of specialization in the over-all saline water conversion program. 

All Office of Saline Water research and development are carried out in the expectation that results will lower conversion costs. There have been many saline water conversion costs published and quoted however, almost all are estimates and have not been proved. The existence of the demonstration plant program attests to this lack of reliable cost information. It is generally agreed that the conversion of sea water to fresh by distillation processes in use 15 to 20 years ago produced fresh water in small quantities at costs of 4 to 5 per thousand gallons. Based upon the Office of Saline Water cost estimating procedure, it is estimated that the first two sea water conversion demonstration plants will produce water at about 1.25 per thousand gallons in the million-gallon-per-day size. Further research and development will lead to lower costs. 

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