Water Desalination: Meeting the Climate Change

The island country Cyprus faces the climate change and many other problems. To fulfill the growing demand for water, the republic uses water desalination plants with a new technology.
Drinking water is a scarce commodity in Cyprus. Intensive agriculture and a growing tourist industry are adding to the strain on water resources. Water scarcity causes significant hardship to the island's population. It defines their daily lives. The hope is that ultrafiltration will help secure the island's water supply in future.

"Everything depends on water. The whole of society." Yianna Economidou, chief engineer of the Water Development Department in Cyprus, is sure that sea water desalination is the only way to make Cyprus independent from climatic conditions. Ultrafiltration membranes play an important role in desalination. They are manufactured by the BASF subsidiary inge® in Greifenberg, Bavaria. "The starting material is a high-performance polymer," Chairman of the Board Bruno Steis says. "We use it to produce an extremely stable UF membrane by a method we designed ourselves." With this type of desalination, salt water is forced through a reverse osmosis membrane under high pressure. The water passes through the membrane while the salt stays behind. An important first step toward a sustainable water supply, but research into improving the membrane material goes on. "The aim is to develop membranes that produce clean drinking water while using the least amount of energy," BASF membrane expert Professor Claudia Staudt says.

Find out more at http://www.creating-chemistry.basf.co...

We create chemistry. More at http://www.basf.com.