Abstract—Desalination is a non-traditional and sustainable source of safe drinking water. Scaling and corrosiveness are critical issues to ensure the sustainability of desalination plants, as they directly affect economic feasibility, operational efficiency, environmental compliance, and the quality of the produced water. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the scaling and corrosion potential for three different water types (feed water, brine, and permeate) related to Seawater Reverse Osmosis (SWRO) desalination plants in Egypt. Statistical approaches and saturation indicators, including the Langelier Saturation Index (LSI), Stiff & Davis Stability Index (S&DSI), and Ryznar Stability Index (RSI), were applied to data collected monthly during 2023. The results revealed that feedwater exhibited S&DSI values ranging from 0.18 to 0.75, indicating scale formation but non-corrosive states. In contrast, RSI values varied between 7.2 and 8.15, confirming the potential corrosion tendency in all plants except one that used shore wells intake. Accordingly, brine S&DSI values ranged from 0.03 to 1.6, signifying conditions from balanced to scale-forming, while their RSI values varied between 5.5 and 8.1, predicting scaling tendencies at lower values and low to high corrosion risks at higher values. On the contrary, permeate water LSI values ranged from –0.28 to –3.21, indicating undersaturation and a tendency toward corrosivity, and the higher RSI (8.55 to 12.85) further confirmed the aggressive nature of the permeate water. The results showed that a slight change in pH levels has the most significant impact on the water's tendency toward scaling, while normal temperature variations did not have the same influence. However, low calcium concentrations are key to increasing the water's corrosive tendency. The findings highlight the need for careful water chemistry management to balance scaling and corrosion risks in desalination systems. Early and continuous detection is recommended to help operators optimize chemical dosing, adjust pretreatment processes, and enhance desalination system longevity by mitigating scaling and corrosion risks.

Keywords—desalination plants, seawater reverse osmosis, saturation index, scaling and corrosiveness potential, sustainable water management

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Cite: Ali Nada, Mahmoud Sharaan, Mohamed Elshemy, Manabu Fujii, and Mona G. Ibrahim, "Scaling and Corrosion Dynamics for Full-Scale SWRO Desalination Plants in Egypt: Challenges and Mitigation Strategies," International Journal of Environmental Science and Development vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 278-285, 2025.

Copyright © 2025 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).