If the RO plants are inland ...
Published by Conor Kenny
If the RO plants are inland brackish and are very small , then lined evaporation ponds with fine jet spray (eg Turbomister) will often be the lowest solution. However the land requirement is high, double liners can be demanded by environment bodies , and the final salt residue will need disposal, and there are issues of wild life protection . Thermal Zero Liquid Discharge plants are insanely expensive in capex and opex . Shallow well disposal has no sustainable future. If a country has many such RO plants then it could consider a strategic pipe network for brine taking the brine to the sea. If there is an existing solar salt farm then that could be used but it environmentally problematic to build a new solar salt farm (bitterns issue). If the RO plant is already near the coast, then disposal to the sea with jet diffusers is always the best solution.