TW EASTERN CHEM SINGAPORE PTE.LTD
The Role of Polyacrylamide in Seawater Desalination
Although 70% of the earth is water, there is
only little water can be drunk or used directly. There are varying degrees of
water shortages around the world. Seawater
desalination is one of the best way to solve this problem. Seawater
desalination is the conversion of high salinity seawater into industrial or
drinking water.
At
present, the methods of desalination are distillation and reverse osmosis.
Distillation is generally used in large desalination plants where there is
sufficient heat. Reverse osmosis is widely used because of its high
desalination rate and wide adaptability. In order to desalinate seawater by
reverse osmosis, the seawater should be pretreated first, followed by
disinfection and algae killing, flocculation and impurity removal, and odor
removal.
Due
to the large amount of sediment, algae and colloids in the sea water, the
turbidity is very high. In order to remove a large number of impurities,
flocculation sedimentation is generally used. Polyacrylamide is the best
flocculant to be selected. Since polyacrylamide has a long molecular chain with
hydroxyl and charge, it can absorb suspended matter in water, form a bridge,
make the dispersed suspended matter form larger flocs, and precipitate to the
bottom of the water. To remove impurities, polyacrylamide is the most ideal
flocculant for water treatment. It has the advantages of easy to use, high
removal rate of impurities and low cost.