Nothing about the water indicates that it comes from the North Sea: no salty taste or smell. Yet it was pumped up on the Zuidpier in IJmuiden, where the first desalination plant of the Dutch company Sea Water is located. Here the seawater has been forced through a series of filters in which salt and contaminants are left behind. The required energy comes from solar panels on the roof. At the end of the ride, clear drinking water remains, which has been for sale at Albert Heijn since the end of August. This means that desalinated North Sea water is on the Dutch shelves for the first time. Has the drought already reached the point where even Dutch people have to turn to the sea to drink?
In dry countries such as Israel and Saudi Arabia, large-scale desalination of seawater is already the most natural thing in the world. Worldwide, the number of desalination plants has tripled in the past twenty years, according to a trade journal Science of The Total Environment published inventory from 2018.
And yes, the sea can also play a role in the drinking water supply in the Netherlands, says desalination researcher Marjolein Vanoppen (Ghent University). She immediately makes a comment: ‘Desalination cannot and should not become a primary source of drinking water in this part of Europe. It is too energy intensive for that.’
The process has become many times more energy efficient in recent decades, she explains, but even with the most economical techniques, she says that about 4 to 8 kilowatt hours of electricity are still needed to produce about 1,000 liters of desalinated water. This is comparable to the daily power consumption of an average household. For reference: Dutch drinking water companies produce more than 1,000 billion liters of water per year, mainly from groundwater.
There are costs involved with energy. In the Netherlands, desalinated North Sea water could flow from the tap at roughly twice the current drinking water price, estimates Luuk Rietveld, professor of drinking water at TU Delft. This is reflected in the bill for the consumer.
In addition, especially with large-scale desalination, the waste, brine, is a problem, says Rietveld. This extremely salty, polluted water is harmful to plants and animals. Proper processing of this also entails costs.
Local and sustainable
It is no coincidence that Dutch consumers can get acquainted with desalinated seawater in the supermarket. The two founders of Sea Water, the brothers Tammo and Jort Wildschut, want to offer an alternative to bottled mineral water with local, sustainable desalinated water. Extra costs are not such a problem, because packaged water is several times more expensive than tap water.
If you really want to be sustainable, you should keep a bottle under the tap in the Netherlands, they say right away. Just because of the packaging and transport, water in the supermarket always has a higher environmental impact.
But there are also bottles from abroad in the Netherlands, so it is more sustainable to choose a pack of desalinated water from IJmuiden, they say. Jort Wildschut: ‘As a company you can still buy a Dopper (brand for refillable bottles, red.) on the market, but hundreds of millions of liters of bottled water are still sold every year in the Netherlands. That is why we are making an effort to make that industry a bit more sustainable.’
Ultimately, they see a great opportunity for locally desalinated water, especially in drier countries such as Italy and Spain, where packaged water is much more popular. The main reason to start in the Netherlands, with a modest production capacity of 11 thousand liters per day, is simply that they come from there. In addition, the brothers say, the quality standards are strict: if your desalinated seawater passes the inspection here, it should work almost everywhere.
No miracle technology
As appealing as the idea of the infinite sea as a source of drinking water is, the experts agree that desalination is not a miracle technology that will eliminate all scarcity due to the energy demand and the waste problem. Luuk Rietveld expects more from better water collection in wet periods and reuse. ‘Think of the purification of used drinking water to use it directly for agriculture or industry.’
In drier areas on earth, desalination can play a greater role, but there is still a lot to gain from smarter water management, the professor believes. Most fresh water worldwide is used for irrigation. ‘You can spray desalinated water over fields, but the tomatoes quickly become too expensive.’
However, desalinated water can also start flowing from the tap in the Netherlands, predicts Marjolein Vanoppen. During dry summers, the sea could provide temporary relief. The international company Elemental Water Makers also thinks so. It has an installation in Scheveningen, which is still purely intended for research and demonstration purposes, director Sid Vollebregt emailed. ‘We see that there is also increasing water scarcity in the Netherlands, but mainly during a short period in the summer.’
Drinking water supplier Brabant Water, among others, is now investigating the possibilities of structurally using seawater. Desalination of brackish groundwater is also an option. ‘We are a groundwater company that has to make decisions in the long term’, says spokesperson Ilse de Groot. ‘We now estimate that the demand for drinking water will increase due to population growth and economic activities, and groundwater is not available indefinitely. That is why we already have to think about alternatives for about ten years from now.’
The role desalination ultimately plays in Western Europe largely depends on how severe the droughts as a result of climate change turn out, says Vanoppen. ‘We don’t know that very well yet. That is why it is wise for drinking water companies to keep their options open.’