Economic and Technical Analysis of a Reverse-Osmosis Water Desalination Plant Using DEEP-3.2 Software

Reverse osmosis （RO） is proved to be the most reliable, cost effective, and energy efficient in producing fresh water compared to other desalination technologies. It is the fastest-growing desalination technology with a greater number of installations around the world. The economic and technical performance of a medium-capacity RO desalination plant （2,000 m^3/day） proposed to be installed in Umm Qasr city south of Basra, Iraq is analyzed using DEEP-3.2 software created by the International Atomic Energy Agency （IAEA）. This port city is located on the Gulf shore and does not have any fresh water resources. The analysis shows that the cost of fresh water produced by this plant is US$0.986/m^3 with a good quality of fresh water （279 ppm）, which is a reasonable price for this remote area. The analysis also shows an increase in water production cost of about 12% at increased electricity price from 0.06 to 0.1 US$/kWh, 53% when the seawater salinity increased from 35,000 to 45,000 ppm, 2.5% when the seawater temperature decreased from 33 ℃ to 20 ℃, and 0.71% when the interest rate increased from 0% to 5%. Pumping fresh water from the Basra purification plant （located 175 km north of Umm Qasr） is 22.16 times the cost and 236.7% poorer quality than the fresh water produced by the RO plant.

Instability mechanism and control technology of soft rock roadway affected by mining and high confined water

Based on deformation and failure characteristics of the second belt conveyor roadway at level II of Zhuxianzhuang coal mine, laboratory experiments, numerical calculation and field test were adopted to analyze the composition and microstructure of mudstone, the law of mudstone hydration and its strength weakening induced by water, the characteristics of surrounding rock deformation and failure under the action of confined water. Results showed that montmorillonite clay minerals accounted for as much as 76% of mudstone, with a large number of pores existing in the microstructure. Besides, as the molecular structure of montmorillonite changed, mudstone microstructure damage occurred with the macroscopic manifestation of its theological instability. Weakening degree of confined water on residual strength of mudstone was almost 50%. The instability mechanism of soft rock roadway caused by high confined water is that surrounding rock circulates the process of ＂fracture-seepage-mud ding-closed＂ twice, which weakens its strength and leads to roadway instability. A combined support technology, namely the, ＂high-toughness sealing layer ＋ hollow grouting cables ＋ full-length anchoring bolts with deep borehole＂ was proposed. Based on field observation, the soft rock roadway was controlled effectively, which also verified the effectiveness of new control technology for surrounding rock.

Numerical model of soft ground improvement by vertical drain combined with vacuum preloading

The rapid development of high-speed transportation infrastructure such as highway and high-speed railway has resulted in the advancement of soft soil improvement techniques. Vacuum preloading combined with vertical drains has been proved to be an effective method in the treatment of soft foundation. A three-dimensional numerical analysis of the coupled methods was presented, in which the smear zone and the well resistance were taken into account. The variations of the basic soil parameters including the permeability coefficient and the coefficient of volume compressibility were considered in the numerical model. The result of the numerical model was then compared to the measured value. The results indicate that the decrease of coefficient of volume compressibility accelerates the consolidation of the soil while the influence of hydraulic conductivity is insignificant. A cube drain presents the closest result to the real situation compared to the other equivalent methods of prefabricated vertical drain (PVD). The case study indicates that the numerical model with variation of soil parameters is closer to the measured value than the numerical model without variation of soil parameters.