الفهرس 
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Abstract
A number of seawater desalination technologies have been developed during the
last several decades to augment the supply of water in arid regions of the world. Due
to the constraints of high desalination costs, many countries are unable to afford
these technologies as a fresh water resource. However, the steady increasing usage of
seawater desalination has demonstrated that seawater desalination is a feasible water
resource free from the variations in rainfall. A seawater desalination process
separates saline seawater into two streams: a fresh water stream containing a low
concentration of dissolved salts and a concentrated brine stream. The process
requires some form of energy to desalinate, and utilize several different technologies
for separation. Two of the most commercially important technologies are based on
the multi-stage flash (MSF) distillation and reverse osmosis (RO) processes.
Although the desalination technologies are mature enough to be a reliable source for
fresh water from the sea, a significant amount of research and development (R&D)
has been carried out in order to constantly improve the technologies and reduce the
cost of desalination. This work reviews the current status, practices, and advances
that have been made in the realm of seawater desalination technologies. Additionally,
it provides an overview of R&D activities and outlines future prospects for the state-
of-the-art seawater desalination technologies. Overall, the present work is made with
special emphasis on the MSF and RO desalination technologies because they are the
most successful processes for the commercial production of large quantities of fresh
water from seawater.