Evaluating the effects of desalination antiscalants on phytoplankton and bacterial communities in oligotrophic environments

Eyal Rahav, Natalia Belkin, Tom Reich, Adina Paytan, Edo Bar-Zeev

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Antiscalants are used in seawater desalination facilities and are typically discharged with the brine back into the coastal environment. We investigated the impact of two commonly-used antiscalants; polyphosphonates and polycarboxylates-based, on phytoplankton and bacterial communities in the oligotrophic Gulf of Aqaba (Northern Red Sea) using mesocosms simulating different antiscalants concentrations. Our results indicate that the addition of polyphosphonates or poly-carboxylates antiscalants significantly altered phytoplankton and bacterial growth, despite being ‘theoretically’ unavailable for microbial utilization. Specifically, the addition of polyphosphonates resulted in a significant eutrophication leading to increase phytoplankton and heterotrophic bacterial biomass. Contrary, the addition polycarboxylates antiscalants triggered a moderate increase in heterotrophic bacterial biomass and a slight phytoplankton loss, summing to a zero change in bacterioplankton's organic biomass. Altogether, the enhanced autotrophic/heterotrophic biomass attributed to the discharge of polyphosphonates-based antiscalants could impair the pretreatment procedure and increase fouling propensity on the reverse-osmosis membranes. Therefore, it is recommended to minimize/avoid the use of polyphosphonates antiscalants in P-limited oligotrophic seas if the brine is discharged into oligotrophic environments.

Original languageEnglish
Article number118110
JournalDesalination
Volume592
DOIs
StatePublished - 21 Dec 2024

Keywords

  • Antiscalants
  • Bacterioplankton
  • Brine
  • Desalination
  • Oligotrophic environment
  • Phytoplankton
  • Polycarboxylates
  • Polyphosphonates

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Chemistry
  • General Chemical Engineering
  • General Materials Science
  • Water Science and Technology
  • Mechanical Engineering

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