Water Desalination Plant Utilizing Biomass

As the sea level rises, costly desalination plants will not be economically and environmentally feasible; however, an evaporation desalination plant harnessing biomass will be convenient in the time of crisis.

Water desalination through evaporation is the most convenient way. However, the substances such as coal, natural gas, etc used to produce heat are not eco-friendly and cost-beneficial. The CO2 emitted from the combustion accelerates the greenhouse effect. In addition to that, such fossil fuels and even electric methods are costly. Thus the whole system becomes unsustainable. Hence to solve such problems we developed a system for water desalination plants that will be economically attainable for the developing countries and eco-friendly. Such a method uses biomass as a medium to produce heat. The heat causes the water to evaporate, leaving the salt behind as a byproduct and acquiring freshwater as an outcome.

First of all, we are trying to ensure fresh water in excess saline areas due to sea-level rise with cheap and eco-friendly materials utilizing biomass. In the current aspect of Bangladesh, rising sea level causes salinity intrusion and the people who live in the coastal areas face a great problem; especially the lack of fresh water. As the sea level rises, seawater bursts and overflows in the land, swamping all the crops, cultivation lands. People in that area cannot get fresh water due to the salinity. 

Currently, a total of 300 million people all over the world rely on desalinated water, and the number is consistently increasing due to the effects of Global Warming. So, this initiative's goal is to innovate a sustainable system to provide fresh water to those living in the coastal area where sea level rise will impact the most. World Bank’s data on Renewable internal freshwater resources shows that in the last 50 years, freshwater per cubic meter has fallen by half. More than 40% of the world’s population lives within coastal areas. That basically means that a large part of the world’s population will face water scarcity, and another large portion of the world’s population will face water supply blockage due to lack of infrastructure to collect water from salinated rivers and the desalination of brackish water. From the data, long-term solutions must be searched and desalination may therefore be a major contribution in view of the high population density close to the coastal areas.

Global warming will eventually cause a population of 410 million to suffer due to sea-level rise. This prototype of such a desalination plant’s objective is to introduce a method that is economically feasible for developing countries such as Bangladesh and environmentally responsible for all, of adapting to a rising sea level and excess salinated water. The initiative of this desalination plant will supply fresh water to people living in the geographically vulnerable to sea-level rise areas. 

Global warming will eventually cause a population of 410 million to suffer due to sea-level rise. This prototype of an evaporation desalination plant’s (uses biomass to produce heat) objective is to introduce a method of adapting to a rising sea level and excess salinated water that is economically feasible for developing countries such as Bangladesh and environmentally responsible for all. The initiative of this desalination plant will supply fresh water to people living in the geographically vulnerable to sea-level rise areas.

We selected our project in the concept stage as we are facing some boundaries to implement it towards our community. The first thing we want to mention is “ Lab Facility’.In our local community, it's a big challenge for us to do our research based on our project in the lab sector. Another obstacle is the budget problem. Due to the short budget, we are unable to select our necessary equipment and utilize our project in the way of implementation. The main theme and motive of our project are to reduce salinity from water in an easy and eco-friendly way utilizing natural substance biomass. Though rising sea level and water salinity is not an alarming fact now, it is a matter of concern for the futuristic world and in the aspect of Bangladesh. We have to implement our project in the coastal areas where water salinity will hinder, then we have to produce it worldwide. So considering all the budget and equipment issues, we selected our project in the stage of concept.

The total desalination plant is based on the concept of evaporation. Evaporation is a process in which liquid water turns into a gaseous form. When in gaseous state water carries nothing other than pure water itself. Henceforth, leaving other particles as sediments.

The saline water will be heated through the combustion of biomass. Hot water will kickstart the evaporation process. Eventually, a high amount of water will transfigure to a gaseous condition. Consequently, leaving the salts behind in form of byproducts and freshwater as an end result. 

Our solution is still a concept, hence it currently doesn’t serve any people. If we get enough funding and materials for our project’s materialization, we can hopefully help an entire village in the coastal area at first. which is estimated to have around 500-2500 residents.

Our main targets are coastal areas. We wish to help people living around the coast, who suffer from insufficient water supply. Our solution is going to help them in a great capacity. If our prototype is successful, we are hoping to steadily increase our area of benefit to Union level by a year which hypothetically is the residence of around 4500-22500 inhabitants.

The principal objective of our project is to deliver fresh water to the people affected by the sea-water intrusion on freshwater sources. A detailed scheme of our stages of progress is described below (Population measures and scaling is done in the perspective of present Bangladesh):

Kickstart: We will consider ourselves being able to kickstart the program if we are able to serve a minimum of 50-150 people.

Village-Scale: Delivering fresh water to a population of at least 450-800 will deem this a small-scale project. 

Union-Scale: Union is a geopolitical division of Bangladesh usually consisting of around 5000 people. We desire to serve the people of a certain union in the coastal areas. 

District Scale: The district is another geopolitical division of Bangladesh typically consisting of a number of population 3,000,000 - 4,000,000. We want to serve these people too.

Up until this moment, we plan to expand to the aforementioned scales. With proper funding and manpower, such a level of achievement is possible. 

As we mentioned before, we are currently facing obstacles in the financial and technical fields. The barriers currently exist for us to accomplish our goals in the next year are mentioned below.

Lab facility: In our local community it's a big challenge for us to do our research in the lab sector. If we want to implement our project in the next year we need a supportive environment where we can do research and necessary procedures on our project.

Technical: Though the materials we currently need for our project are easily obtainable, but if we want to implement our project to a mass community we need more materials that are hard to bear for us.

Financial: Aforementioned, the materials we need for our project are obtainable but for further research and implementation, we need some more materials. Besides, for our research we need to implement our project in coastal areas, we may be running behind our budget.

 We think that we are eligible to deliver this solution as we have experience in this field. Our other project “ Green Collar Plastic” was selected at the national level in an event called “ Chintar Chash”  and we became runners-up. Our theme was to reduce plastic using eco-friendly, degradable, and sustainable plastic and save the environment. This year we came up with an idea of reducing water salinity utilizing biomass, especially in coastal areas. As we have experience and achievements in innovation programs, we are hoping that we can ace it this time too. As far as the matter is voluntary, we are members of an organization called Revolgenix. Revolgenix is a Bangladesh-based international youth-run nonprofit and research-based organization aiming to develop youth self and STEM skills alongside societal development. We with our team are trying to make our community a better place to live in through voluntary. Considering our innovation and voluntary skills and experience we think,  our team is well-positioned to deliver this solution.

Currently, we don't have partnerships with other organizations.

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