Water scarcity is one of the biggest social and environmental challenges of our age. The impacts of climate change and growth in water demand are exacerbating the pressure on the Earth’s limited water resources.

Indeed, given this global and European situation of ever-increasing pressure on freshwater resources and subsequent water stress, alternative water sources such as seawater desalination have emerged. Due to its weather independency, desalination of seawater could be an extremely important alternative source of drinking water if costs and environmental impacts can be reduced.

The main objective of LIFE DREAMER is to demonstrate a highly resource-efficient desalination system using reverse osmosis. The new technology will be installed on a pilot line at the La Tordera seawater desalination plant in Girona, Spain. It is designed to reduce the costs and environmental impact of desalination.

Specifically, the project will:

• Increase water conversion through treatment of waste and concentred brine streams;
• Reduce energy consumption per unit of water;
• Re-use the brine and precipitated calcium and magnesium salts generated during the desalination process; and
Recover commercially-valuable materials such as phosphates.

This project will directly contribute to the implementation of the Water Framework Directive and could have high replicability potential, especially in the Mediterranean basin.

Expected results:

• Recovery of over 90% of the treated seawater (compared to 50% for conventional RO systems);
• Reduction of waste discharged by at least 80% compared to conventional RO systems;
• 50% reduction in chemical use in desalination (specifically, reagents for remineralisation and fouling prevention);
• 10% reduction in energy consumption per unit of water produced by desalination (and associated greenhouse gas emissions); and
• Publication of a study of the economic feasibility and environmental and socio-economic benefits of implementing the LIFE DREAMER system in different areas and other desalination plants.