The quality with which water is released from desalination plants is continuously increasing. Since desalination permeates are slightly acidic, contain very low buffering capacity and are very soft, post-treatment is always required. This paper reviews the knowledge accumulated in the last decades on desalination post-treatment processes. It covers fundamental chemistry aspects, required water quality criteria, advantages and disadvantages of currently applied processes, engineering and cost considerations, recent full-scale project experience and up-to-date research trends. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.