Desalination plant in Lakshadweep

• National Institute of Ocean Technology aims to set up green self-powered desalination plant in Lakshadweep.
  • Current desalination plants are powered by diesel generator sets – leading to air pollution and increase in operational cost due to diesel transportation to island.
• NIOT has established Low Temperature Thermal Desalination (LTTD) plants on six Lakshadweep islands and one at Northern Chennai.

Technology used

• Desalination is the process of obtaining freshwater from either seawater or brackish water from estuaries.
• LTTD is a process under which warm surface seawater is flash evaporated at low pressure and vapour is condensed with cold deep seawater.
• Cold water condenses the warmer water (at the surface level) whose pressure has been lowered using vacuum pumps.
• Condensed water is free of salts and contaminants and fit to consume.
• Now, instead of diesel, Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) technology will be used to generate energy to depressurize warmer water (previously, done through diesel powered vacuum pumps).

Benefits of LTTD

• Not require any chemical pre and post-treatment of seawater and thus pollution problems are minimal.
• Completely indigenous, robust and environment friendly.

About National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT)

• The National Institute of Ocean Technology(NIOT) was established in 1993 as an autonomous society under the Ministry of Earth Sciences in India.
• NIOT aims to develop reliable indigenous technologies to solve various engineering problems associated with the harvesting of non-living and living resources in India’s exclusive economic zone, which is about two-thirds of the land area of India.
• NIOT is the nodal institution for the Deep Ocean Mission.