MEDVSA: A methodology for the design of brine discharges into seawater. Brine discharge modeling

The increase of desalinated water production in Spain implies an increase of the volume of dense brine disposed into seawaters, with a different behaviour in the near and the far field regions. The negative impacts of brine on marine ecosystems, together with the recent environmental concerns regarding brine management and the lack of legislation, justifies the developing of the R&D “MEDVSA” project: Development and implementation of a Methodology to reduce the brine discharge environmental impact”, which aims to make compatible the use of desalination as an important water resource in some Spanish coastal areas, with the environmental protection of the marine areas, while following Sustainable Development principles. Among the tasks included in the project, numerical modeling is one of the most notable. Commercial tools have been analysed in detail, developing Technical Specification Cards (TSC) focused on brine discharges near field modeling. MEDVSA online simulation tools have then been programmed for near and far field simple simulations. TSC and MEDVSA simulation tools are available on the project Web Site: www.medvsa.es.