Societal and economic aspects of a novel circular system for the valorisation of desalination brine and waste heat from a power plant

Direct disposal of concentrate brines produced in industrial plants can have a relevant impact to environmental systems. For this reason, brine treatment and valorisation could help to avoid disposal and produce marketable salts, thus representing a possible economic benefit. With this aim, a novel process, where advanced separation technologies are combined with waste heat recovery, is proposed within the EU-funded WATER MINING project. The Case Study presented in this work concerns the power plant in Lampedusa island, where waste heat and desalination brine are available to implement the process via a pilot plant to be installed for alternative thermal treatment of the brine. The aim is t…