Desalination options

[Jacqui P]

Does anyone know an organic or simple way to desalinate water, in this case water from the Brisbane River? I'm working with the Brisbane City Council on plans for the future of Davies Park and am wondering if it would be feasible to irrigate the park and gardens from the river. I know there are permaculture methods of cleaning 'grey' water, but don't know what works with salty water.

[Elaine de Saxe]

All that springs to mind is distillation using solar power. There are such devices around but they are tricky to find on the internet. Distillation removes all the minerals not just salt so it might not be so desirable for plant watering but then it wouldn't have Chlorine, Fluoride and the krud my sediment filter pulls out of my water - you should see it - yecch!

[Jacqui P]

I was hoping for something simpler than distillation. Thought Anthony might have a solution like Fulvic acids, that removes salt. Thanks anyway.

[Donna]

Hi Jacqui
I think Anthony has been away consulting, but he has rsvp'ed for the Garden Visit this Saturday so will ask him about it for you.

[Cassandra]

I know of a lady that developed a desalination and water purifier for developing countries using solar. It is very cheep but not available in Australia, yet. It may be the same one Elaine is talking about. Desalination in Australia has been found to be very expensive. Take Adelaide for example. My thoughts would be that may be better to catch run off and put it through water plants used for cleaning water. We found a resort that recycled all their water through ponds in tanks. This system seems more cost efficient than desalinisation technology. It also doubles as a garden. Biolitics is easy to get your hands on and easily approved by councils.
hope this helps

[Annabel Douglas-Hill]

Lions Club took on the project as the lady was financially stretched and it won 3rd prize in the ABC inventors awards. Its good for cleaning saline and dirty water but is not cheap....but provides remote villages with clean potable water for drinking.
If the water comes from a creek or dam then waterplants are a cheap alternative to remove the crud you're talking about. It would depend on your situation - urban or country.
Biolytix is a great company that uses worms to clean grey water and toilet waste water, which can be used on native gardens. It needs some power to run the pump. It uses no chlorine in the purification process. The water is considered not suitable for food gardens and pipes must run underground, so another purification process would be necessary to keep Council happy. However I can't see any problem with growing food on the damp soil, as long as the soil does not come in contact with the food, with a layer of pea straw...it can be used for growing nut and fruit trees with no problems.

[Jacqui P]

Annabel, was this Dr Vivian Robinson's portable water filtration system? I've checked their website, (www.smallwaterpurifier.com/water/Home.html), but they say "Neither the Purifier nor Clarifier can remove salt", only up to 10% contamination. I also checked the Nature Flow site with their UV filtration system, but they only seem to treat black & grey water, not salt water either. See previous comments re the whole plan. I'm not too worried about costs - Brisbane City Council has enough money to provide Davies Park with the most sustainable water options available. Or at least that's my opinion.

[Annabel Douglas-Hill]

Hi Jacqui, No it wasn't...this was Dr John Stanley and Dr Marg Folkard's solar powered solar system for removing salt from salt water AND purifying dirty water for remote villages. I can't find her website, I think she retired and passed the work onto Rotary (I first thought it was Lions). Her email is [e-mail]. I'll keep looking. Their system was about $17K. I looked into it for a farmer to use estuarine river water to grow commercial crops but have lost the message from the distributor. I think the model is too small to produce water for a large park. You would need to check with Adelaide City Council about the commercial desalination model they plan to use to support dams that feed Adelaide with water especially if having enough money is not a problem.

There is another system that uses chlorine purification-since Councils worry about human bacteria in grey water - called the Biocycle. They must have a commercial model. Sprinklers from this model can water a smallish park- how big is Davies Park? 5ha? Both Biolytix and Biocycle require electricity for powering their pumps (to the sprinklers).
Kangaroo Island Wilderness Lodge use a system of tanks and waterplants to purify effluent from a motel/hotel (100+ people), the final 'waste' goes into a wetland which is lined with reeds and waterplants and provides bird habitat.

[Jacqui P]

Okay, I finally found story about the rotary project (John Ward's invention) at: http://www.abc.net.au/ra/innovations/stories/s1102910.htm Their contact is: [e-mail] and I've sent her an email asking if they are commercially available. From what I've read, I agree it is probably too small for the park. Not sure of its size, but less that 10 ha for sure, so we're not looking at large scale systems.
I've also found the Biocycle website, they sound very similar to the Biolytix system, both designed for greywater - which is the other alternative, but won't supply enough water. Thanks for the info, as I'm fast becoming an expert on grey water systems.

[Jacqui P]

Sorry for the delay in responding Cassandra. I'm also looking at the 'permaculture' way of cleaning water by running it through plants, gravel in streams and ponds etc. Do you know the name of the resort you found? It would help in my research. Any more details about the the solar option for developing countries - like her name or a website, would help too. The desalination option was to be an alternative to harvesting and cleaning grey & black water. I've checked out the Biolytix website - thanks for that. I will recommend that system for use in Davies Park, but it won't supply enough water to irrigate the whole park, which is why I was hoping for a simple, environmentally friendly way to clean river water.

[Elaine de Saxe]

Jacqui ... check out Kingfisher resort on Fraser Island. I believe they have a Biolytix or similar, they certainly trumpet their environmental credentials! As well, Google for environmentally-friendly resorts you will probably find a stack of them these days.

[Jacqui P]

Yeah the Biolytix system is great. Unfortunately it doesn't cope with salt water either.

[Annabel Douglas-Hill]

Hi Jacqui,
Thanks for that link...what a small world. I know both inventor, John Ward and interviewer, Blanch but had no idea they'd met. Blanch and I shared a passion for submerged waterplants - which have almost disappeared from large river systems.
I hope something comes of your search - maybe when water shortages really hit us the desalination invention will come into its own; for the moment it seems too expensive for the average citizen. I know most motels on Kangaroo Island (at American River) use desalination, but there are problems with disposing of the waste salt.