The Center is directed to focus on priority research, training and communication needs, in order to achieve the objectives defined by its Establishment Agreement. As a result, each year the Center will re-evaluate its overall program, to continually enrich its activities and maintain close proximity to the changing needs of the desalination technologies. Each year a revised Program Framework and Profile (PFP) will be presented to the Research Advisory Council (RAC) for their review and their input for the technical agenda of the upcoming year.
The Center's Research Program is based on Seven Research Program Goals:
- Decrease the cost of desalination
- Develop productive partnerships and cooperation
- Develop sustainable desalination technologies
- Improve communications in the desalination community
- Develop human resources for application of desalination and foster international cooperation in research activities, particularly among regional experts
- Utilize limited regional and international research resources
- Maximize technology transfer
Research Topic Areas:
For a systematic approach to research planning and management, the Center has defined ten Topic Areas into which projects are tendered. The Center's Research Advisory Council annually reviews the previous and recommend new projects for each of the following ten areas of research.
Thermal Desalination: Thermal desalination process technologies are mature and are generally applied to seawater desalination and rarely to brackish water desalination, as they are energy intensive. Research is focused on performance improvements in these process technologies and simplification of the design.
Membrane Desalination: Research is focused on the improvement of performance of these processes for seawater and brackish water desalination. Topics to be considered are new membranes, membrane module & process design, energy recovery in RO processes, pretreatment methods, scaling and fouling fundamentals, and process and ancillary equipment design.
Non-Traditional or Alternative Desalination: Research is focused on development and feasibility studies of new concepts for non-traditional desalination processes and feasibility studies of desalination concepts that have not been fully explored.
Operation and Maintenance: Research is focused on improving operation, efficiency and reliability of the many conventional desalination plants now in operation.
Intakes & Outfalls: The intake and outfall of desalination plants are often neglected when considering system improvements. Research is focused on procedures for selecting appropriate intake and outfall systems based on the site conditions and development of new intake and out-fall systems.
Energy Issues: Energy cost is the major component of the operating cost of any desalination plant. Research under this topic is focused on reduction in energy consumption and the use of cheap alternative energy sources. Research will also focus on application of renewable energy sources for desalination.
Environment Issues: Research is focused on improvements in the desalination processes for reducing and/or disposing of effluents including assessment of the composition of desalination plant effluents and develop procedures for assessment of environmental impact of desalination plant effluents.
Hybridized Systems: Studies for development of hybrid desalination processes for reduction in capital, operation and maintenance costs.
Certification Programs: The Center is concerned to promote the development and use of appropriate codes of practice and standards in materials, systems, operation and maintenance.
Assessment Studies: As a precursor to future research there is universal need for critical assessments of the current state of the art in the various topic areas of desalination, and to identify where the best scope and opportunities for cost-saving lie.
