Question

Desalination. More cities are supplying some of their fresh water through desalination, the process of removing the salt from ocean water. The worldwide desalination capacity has grown exponentially from 15 million m3 per day in 1990 to 55 million m3 per day in 2007.

Answer 1

a) Find the exponential growth rate k, and write an equation for an exponential function that can be used to predict the worldwide desalination capacity D(t), in millions of cubic meters per day, t years after 1990.
b) Predict the worldwide desalination capacity in 2012.
c) In what year will the worldwide desalination capacity reaches 100 million m³ per day?