A study on the effect of seawater desalination facilitiesby-products on marine ecosystem

Context/Purpose : The purpose of this study was to applied WET and the TIE test to the by-product of a seawater desalination facility located in South Korea. Waste water toxic materials were estimated by ecotoxical experiment using V.fischeri and finding physic and chemical feature in by-product, which was conducted TIE phase Ⅰ. Compounds and ions in the by-product were identified using ion chromatography (IC), induced coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES), in TIE phase Ⅰand Ⅱ..

Methods: . The bioluminescence intensities emitted by V.fischeri in the control and in the test samples after 5 min of exposure to Bap were detected by a Microtox 500 Analyzer (SDI, Carlsbad, CA), and the differences were used to calculate the toxicity of the Bap under the given Bap concentration..

Results: In confirmation step (TIE phase III), chloride ion was demonstrated to be main toxicant in this effluent by the spiking approach and deletion approach. potassium(720.4±40.7 mg/L), magnesium(2,442.3±73.8 mg/L), sodium(19,926.1±1,003.7 mg/L), sulfate(5038.0±307.7 mg/L) concentration was not shown toxicity from V.fischeri. Finally, we concluded that chloride was the most contributing toxicant in the seawater desalination facility by-product.

Interpretation: Based on the results, advanced treatment processes, such as Ion exchange, reverse osmosis technology are recommended for the wastewater treatment process in this location.

Conclusion: Due to the water such as wastewater plants in the environment, in the stream or river flowing harmful heavy metals gives an adverse effect. Therefore, according to water quality environment standard method, we test the evaluation of the biological toxicity by using V.fischeri.