It is with pleasure that I have accepted the invitation by Greening the Islands to present my book “The 7,000-year story of seawater desalination”, which will become available for distribution in February 2025.
I am pleased to anticipate and share some information on the achievements, discoveries, failures of mankind in its long jorney, which lasted millennia, looking for ways to implement desalination until our times when it has become a mainstream fresh water supply alternative and one of the most crucial solutions for water security on islands.
The book retraces dersalination to its origins and shows that the three main forms of desalination used to date are the same ones that have been discovered or imagined at least 2,600 years ago and discussed from then until today. The ancient navigators of the Pacific probably already used desalination 5,000 years ago, but its wide application onboard ships started with the transoceanic voyages of the Europeans.
It started to be used on a larger scale on-land in the second part of the XIX century, first on the western coast of Latin America, then in many places around the world. But readers will not be surprised to also discover that islands were among the first places where desalination was used, even beforte the XIX century.
In any case the Earth’s inhabitants had to be already aware of the practice of desalinating water by evaporation and condensation well before it was first described by Aristotle, sometimes from direct experience with their cooking vessels, which were, in fact, a type of alembic.
Since the ancient times, desalination has followed a constant development and has been an integral part of the socio-political history of the world, for instance by playing a crucial technical role on warships during the Second World War and enabling the development of the oil producing countries of the Middle East and North Africa after the war.
If it is true that the key necessity of fresh water, thus the use of desalination, has been clear to sailors millennia ago, most people have taken fresh water for granted in our world until recently. Even in terms of sustainable development the key role of water was formally recognised only in the second United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002 in Johannesburg, much of the credit going to Nelson Mandela.
In the midst of an increasing water crisis worldwide, after thousands of years of development, the amount of energy required to desalinate water, which had already been decreasing over time, was practically halved in the last decade of the last century, just in time to come to the rescue of humankind.
This reduction of the cost of desalination was due to a radical change in the dominant technology. Desalination by distillation – i.e., by condensation of vapour – had taken thousands of years to reach a level of efficiency that allowed it to become widespread as a source of drinking water after the Second World War in the countries that could afford it.
At the end of the second millennium of our era, desalination by distillation was largely replaced by a completely different method based on membranes, known as Reverse Osmosis, which is much cheaper. In fact, the cost of desalinating water has become comparable, in some cases even cheaper, than harvesting the traditional natural water resources.
Like with distillation, RO will continue its journey towards even greater efficiency and more competitive costs, also thanks to the increasing use of renewable energy, but at some point will be overtaken by a new disruptive technology that will make it possible to produce fresh water at even lower cost, for the benefit of all humankind. In the book I take a shot at guessing: I see this starting to happen in 30 years from now, that is around 2050.
In any case, it is certain that desalination and reuse will increasingly become an integral part of water resources everywhere in the world and must now be taken into account in any water supply planning that is concerned with its security. This is particularly true for many islands of the world, both large and small, whose water supply can easily become stretched or has become insufficient, in particular where tourism has become an important feature of the local economy.
In the industrial field, already without the desalination of water we would not be able to produce thermal electric power or most of the components of electronics, especially chips, and we would often not be able to extract oil from underwater deposits, to mention just a few sectors. Desalination is essential for producing paper, beer, steel, cars… Moreover, in various parts of the world agriculture could not go on without also using desalinated water because of climate change and increased demand.
The best way to conclude this introduction is probably with the words by the publisher on the back of the cover of the book, together with excerpts from the four contributions:
Desalination developed over thousands of years until, in the last one hundred and fifty years, it exploded in the face of a growing global water crisis. Often without us being aware, it has become an integral part of the drinking water supply in many cities such as London, Barcelona, Perth and Singapore, and particularly in the Middle East and North Africa, e.g. Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Tel Aviv and Algiers, as well as supplying major industries and agriculture. In 2024, more than 5% of mankind consumes desalinated water from the sea on a daily basis.
This book has been conceived not only for members of the international desalination community, but also for the non-specialist readers who are interested in the historical and social development of an ancient technology that has become of fundamental relevance today and will increasingly be so for the benefit of all mankind.
Emilio Gabbrielli takes us on a fascinating journey over many millennia to appreciate the history and evolution of desalination techniques. In this deeply researched book, Emilio tells a very human story and identifies the pioneers, the challenges, the breakthroughs and the geopolitics of this vital scientific and engineering quest, from antiquity to the present day.
Anthony (Tony) Fane
Emeritus Professor, UNESCO Centre for Membranes, UNSW, Australia
This history of desalination is most fascinating to experts and to laymen since water is essential to life on earth and has been considered over the ages by philosophers by technologists and entire populations.
Miriam Balaban
Editor in Chief, “Desalination”, “Desalination and Water Treatment”
Secretary General of the European Desalination Society (EDS)
There is a belief that someone cannot be a full-fledged member of their profession without understanding its history. In that light, members of the desalination community will be well served by this book. Emilio Gabbrielli has gathered here a very readable work including some mate¬rial not previously published.
James (Jim) Birkett
This account is a must-read for anyone interested in the intersection of ancient civilisations, technology and environmental resilience. Gabbrielli’s pioneering work enriches our understanding of the past and inspires critical reflection on current challenges and opportunities in water management.
Shannon McCarthy
Secretary General, International Desalination and Reuse Association (IDRA)
The English and Italian versions of “The 7,000-year story of seawater desalination” will become available for sale on the publisher website and through major retail sites from February 1st 2025 and the Spanish and Portuguese versions by the end of April 2025.
