Desalination Plant Design Basis — Scoping Template
A scoping starting point for a desalination plant design basis. Enter your required product flow, plant recovery target, source type, feed TDS, and the media filter's net filtrate recovery — then load the basis straight into the Plant Designer, where every value stays editable and the same engine derives intake, treatment stages, water and salt balances, and the schedule from your data.
What this template is
A five-field design-basis starter — not an engineering recommendation and not a plant design. The template only collects the basis the Plant Designer needs to start: required product flow, plant recovery target, source type, feed TDS, and the media filter's net filtrate recovery. Everything else (raw intake, RO stage recovery, make-up, concentrate TDS, equipment schedule) is derived by the designer from what you supply; values you do not supply stay "required input" rather than being assumed.
- Light cells are user-entered — the basis fields.
- Derived values (raw intake, balances) are calculated by the Plant Designer, never entered here.
- Assumptions and limits are stated in the Notes & Assumptions section.
Design basis
The starter basis is a scoping example, not project data and not a recommendation — fill the fields with your own values, or load the starters and replace them in the designer.
The load link carries the basis values above into the Plant Designer and opens it — intake, stages, balances and the product schedule are then derived by the same engine the designer always uses. The RO stage recovery is derived from your plant recovery and the filter recovery, so the loaded basis is internally consistent for whatever you enter.
Notes & Assumptions
- Scope: the template captures a design basis only (flow, recovery, source, feed TDS). It does not size equipment, does not choose membranes, and does not produce a plant design.
- Raw intake is derived in the Plant Designer from required product flow and the recovery target, never assumed on this page.
- The media filter's net filtrate recovery is a stated design decision, not a constant. The 97 % starter is a scoping example for a filter/backwash programme, and it is the backwash loss that makes the filtrate smaller than the feed. Replace it with your own programme; the designer refuses to balance a media filter that has no recovery stated.
- The RO stage recovery is derived here, not entered: between the raw intake and the RO product the only process that removes water is the media filter, so the stage recovery that delivers the stated plant recovery is the plant recovery divided by the filter's net filtrate recovery (45 % ÷ 97 % ≈ 46.39 % for the starters). The designer then verifies the achieved recovery against your target rather than adopting it.
- Feed TDS is treated as a known input. The designer reports salt separation as engine-calculated only where the model actually separates salt (reverse osmosis); otherwise it stays data-required.
- No compliance claim: this workbook does not assert conformance to any desalination or potable-water standard. Verify the basis and every result against project-specific data and applicable standards with a qualified engineer.
- Every starter value is replaceable; the "Use starters" button only fills the fields and is never treated as a design decision.