desalination wastewater contains a number of other chemicals used in the desalination process (e.g. pH adjusters, coagulants and flocculants, antiscalants, dispersants, biocides, and reducing chemicals)
I mean... pH adjusters would definitely significantly alter things. The other major problem (I'd guess) is just the health implications of working with toxic wastewater. Is it safe?
For context, as of 2019, we produced enough of this "brine" to cover Florida with 30 centimeters of brine every year. That means, as a whole, desalination plants actually produce even more toxic wastewater than they do clean drinking water.
As a result figuring out ways we could utilize this _product_ ("byproduct" feels like the wrong term here considering it's the primary thing produced) is a major area of interest
I looked up your claim that desalination plants produce "toxic wastewater" and I found nothing to support it. The output appears to be simple concentrated ocean water, and that's it.
I'm more interested in what you possibly looked up that made it hard to find...
> Furthermore, chemicals such as biocides, surface−active agents, anti-scale additives, and solid residues from filter backflushing may be present in the effluent discharge on a continuous or periodic basis, posing a risk to the environment
> Brine effluents from RO desalination plants not only have a high salt content but typically also contain compounds from the desalination process, such as phosphonate-based antiscalants and ferric (or alum) sulphate-based coagulants
> The super-salty substance is made even more toxic by the chemicals used in the desalination process, researchers reported in the journal Science of the Total Environment.
> Copper and chlorine, for example, are both commonly used.
Sure but it's alternative uses were already known. It just so happened that a world-altering invention (the consumer automobile) came along to dramatically raise already existing demand for it. There is currently no demand/use for desalination brine. For every "this byproduct is actually useful" story there's likely 10 byproducts that simply stay byproducts. Still, it's urgent we figure out something to do with it since it's damaging our ocean ecosystems
Go from the super high salinity brine through to crude salt, then chloralkali process to get sodium (which can be cleaned up) and chlorine gas (industrially useful).
