Li Gao1, Jianhua Zhang1 and Ming Li2
1Institute for Sustainable Industries and Liveable Cities, Victoria University, P.O. Box 14428, Melbourne, Victoria 8001, Australia, 2College of Natural Resources and Environment, Northwest A&F University, Taicheng Road 3, Yangling 712100, China
Correspondence: Li Gao, li.gao@sew.com.au
Desalination processes are critical for producing freshwater from salty water, and an algae-based desalination approach has drawn increasing attention as a potential low-cost and passive-energy desalination technology, which could be a competitive solution to desalination in remote areas impacted by water shortages. We have studied the algae-based desalination from technical and economic perspectives. Our study demonstrated that both adsorption and absorption contributed to the salt removal, but adsorption played a more significant role (two thirds of the salt removal). The full adsorption can be reached within a relatively short period (1–30 min), and the salts removed by absorption is negligible when the contact time was short. Comparing with the high pressure reverse osmosis desalination and microalgae based desalination systems, the hybrid desalination system based on the combination of low pressure reverse osmosis and microalgae is considered as the most economical and environmentally friendly option.