ISO 13205:2024

Overview

ISO 13205:2024 - Marine technology - Seawater desalination - Vocabulary is the first edition International Standard that establishes a unified vocabulary for the entire seawater desalination process. The document defines terms and definitions covering the full desalination flow: water intake, pre‑treatment, membrane desalination, distillation desalination, post‑treatment, and auxiliary concepts. ISO 13205:2024 applies to all types and sizes of seawater desalination systems and to all stakeholders engaged in desalination projects.

Key Topics

This vocabulary standard clarifies technical language used across desalination engineering, operations and research. Key topics included are:

• Basic definitions: seawater desalination, source water, feed water, desalinated water, product water, brine, recovery rate, concentration factor.
• Water intake: surface and subsurface intakes, vertical and slant wells, infiltration galleries, tunnelled intakes.
• Pre‑treatment: chlorination, coagulation, clarification, dechlorination, dissolved air flotation (DAF), flocculation, sedimentation, sand and multimedia filters, self‑cleaning and cartridge filters, microfiltration (MF), ultrafiltration (UF).
• Membrane desalination: reverse osmosis (RO), nanofiltration (NF), pressure vessels, membrane elements/modules, RO trains, passes and stages, permeate flux, membrane rejection, energy recovery devices (ERD) and booster pumps.
• Distillation desalination: covered as a principal desalting category alongside membranes (terminology for distillation processes and components).
• Post‑treatment and auxiliary terms: mineralization, water blending, brine management, membrane cleaning and chemical dosing.

Applications

ISO 13205:2024 is a reference tool to:

• Standardize terminology in technical specifications, design documents, regulatory frameworks and academic publications.
• Improve communication among desalination engineers, plant operators, consultants, regulators, researchers, and equipment vendors.
• Support procurement, commissioning, risk assessments and cross‑disciplinary collaboration in projects ranging from small coastal plants to large municipal or industrial desalination facilities.

Who should use it

• Design and process engineers specifying systems or writing technical reports
• Plant operators and maintenance teams
• Regulatory agencies and permitting bodies
• Standards developers, researchers and educators in marine technology and water treatment
• Equipment manufacturers and contractors preparing product datasheets or contracts

Related Standards

ISO 13205:2024 was prepared by ISO/TC 8/SC 13 and references related terminology sources such as ISO 23070:2020, ISO 6107:2021, ISO 20480‑4:2021, ISO 22519:2023 and ASTM D6161‑2019. Use ISO 13205:2024 to align language across these and other desalination documents.