Potential Exploitation of Modified Surfaces to Mitigate Fouling in Thermal Desalination Industry

The increased deterioration of existing groundwater resources and gradual decline in costs of freshwater water production, have given new impetus to the use of desalination plants in arid lands. Nonetheless, the formation of scale on heat transfer surfaces could profoundly reduce the efficiency of thermal desalination plants. The widely used practice to mitigate scale formation in such units is to use chemical inhibitors. However new environmental legislations restrict the widespread use of such chemicals. This paper highlights the potentially impact of surface treatment by changing surface properties or geometry as an environmentally-friendly mitigation techniques. Advantages and disadvantages of each surface modification technique will be discussed and a review of the previous investigations of fouling on various modified surfaces will be presented.