Blending Irrigation Water Sources with Different Salinities and the Economic Damage of Salinity: The Case of Israel

Section: Topics Covered By Papers In This Special Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

Decision Support Tools for Water Quality Management

Quinn

Dinar

Sridharan

2022

“…About 34 million ha of salinized soil has become salinized as a direct result of irrigation [9]. Saline water and salinized soils reduce the potential crop yield, and the number of crop varieties that can be grown, when compared with freshwater irrigation [10][11][12][13][14][15]. The combination of irrigation water demand (which can be in the range 1000 to 10,000 m 3 ha −1 a −1 ), low crop yield (t ha −1 ), and low crop value (USD t −1 ), ensure that most global agricultural units, growing staple crops (e.g., rice, wheat, barley, maize), will be unable to economically purchase desalinated water for a price of <USD 0.5 m 3 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Desalination of Irrigation Water Using Metal Polymers

Antia¹

2022

Rain-fed and irrigated agriculture associated with salinized soil and saline water supplies is characterized by low crop yields. Partial desalination of this saline water will increase crop yields. Recent studies have established that supported metal polymers can be used to produce partially desalinated irrigation water without producing a waste reject brine. This study assesses the ability of more than 90 different unsupported metal polymer formulations (containing one or more of Al, Ca, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, and Zn) to remove Na+ ions and Cl− ions from saline water (seawater, brine, brackish water, and flowback water). The polymers were constructed using a simple sol-gel approach at ambient temperatures. The overall ion removal followed a first-order reaction. Removal selectivity between Na+ and Cl− ions was a function of polymer formulation. Mg@Al polymers preferentially remove Cl− ions, while Fe@Ca polymers tend to remove Cl− and Na+ ions in more equal proportions. Ion removal can be rapid, with >50% removed within 1 h. These results were used to develop a process methodology, which will allow most seawater, brackish water, and saline flowback water to be desalinated to form usable irrigation water.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Blending saline water with freshwater (or desalinated water) has sometimes been considered to increase the supply of irrigation water [8]. This approach can be effective in increasing overall crop yields, but may result in long-term soil salinization [8]. Some studies have demonstrated higher crop yields when crops are irrigated with desalinated water compared to irrigation with freshwater [9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Catalytic Partial Desalination of Saline Water

Antia¹

2022

More than 1 billion ha of land is adversely affected by salinization, including about 54 million ha of irrigated cropland. This study trials a batch flow, bubble column, static bed, catalytic, pressure swing adsorption−desorption, zero valent iron, and diffusion reactor train, which is designed to partially desalinate water, for use as either livestock feed water or partially desalinated irrigation water. ZVI desalination produces a partially desalinated water product, without producing a waste brine product. The trial demonstrates sequential batch processing of 50 (0.86 m3) batches of saline water (43 m3 total), using a single ZVI charge, without loss of activity. The trialed feed water contained between 1 and 9 g NaCl L−1. The average desalination was 41.84% (standard deviation was 15.61%). The optimum batch processing time is determined as being between 12 and 24 h. For each batch, the first-order forward rate constants, for both Cl− and Na+ ion removal, decline with time. The study considers the irrigation application of the product water on crop yield for 70 crop varieties; the application of the technology to desalinate a saline aquifer; applications of the technology to improve the environmental efficiency of conventional desalination plants.