Groundwater chemistry and desalination using forward osmosis technique in the area between Baranis and Halaib, Egypt.

Abstract

Baranis and Halaib area is located between longitudes 35.49°–35.52 °E and latitudes 22.47°–23.94 °N. It covers a vast stretch south east of Egypt (about 192000 Km2). More attention is directed to this arid area to raise the standard of living and the development of this part. The first thing to be attended is the water supply. Two sources of water supply are available in the area, the first is the groundwater and the second is the rain water. Desalination using forward osmosis (FO) process for the lowcost production of clean drinking water was applied. The FO process would then be optimized to address the needs of using this innovative technology with the careful selection of process parameters. Furthermore, various issues pertaining to the application of FO process for large-scale and low-cost production of clean drinking water will be considered and attempts will be made to resolve them. A field trip has been carried out to collect 38 groundwater samples from the study area. The depth to water ranges from 0.5 to 34.1 m. All laboratory analysis was conducted for all samples to estimate the concentrations of the major and minor components in addition to heavy metals. Investigate the hydrochemistry of groundwater in the study area will assess to evaluate the groundwater to meet the different future development in the study area. The preparation of FO membranes, characterization, and evaluation the performance in the desalination process were