Water Desalination in the Face of Climate Change: Challenges, Issues, and Solutions for Water Security in Arid and Semi-Arid Countries

As climate change tightens its grip, fresh water is becoming an increasingly strained resource — and the desalination of seawater has emerged as one of the few technologies capable of freeing a country from the uncertainty of rainfall.

But this solution comes at a cost: it remains one of the most energy-intensive water treatment processes in existence, demands rigorous pretreatment to avoid premature membrane fouling, and generates vast volumes of concentrated brine whose ultimate fate concerns marine ecologists.

Drawing on the most recent international scientific literature as well as operational data from real-world facilities — particularly in Algeria and the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region — this book explores in depth: the link between climate change, water stress, and geopolitical water security; the history, principles, and global landscape of desalination; the sector's three critical challenges (energy consumption often exceeding 4 kWh/m³, reverse-osmosis membrane fouling, and marine brine discharge); the most promising technical solutions (energy recovery, next-generation membranes, circular brine economy); the strategic coupling of desalination with green hydrogen; the extraction of critical metals — lithium foremost — from desalination brine; and an in-depth case study of Algeria alongside international comparisons (Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Spain).

A reference work for students, engineers, policymakers, and any reader curious to understand how a complex industrial technology addresses one of the century's great emergencies while raising new environmental challenges of its own.