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MIT team invents efficient shockwave-based process for desalination of water

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Re: MIT team invents efficient shockwave-based process for desalination of water

#11

Post by Rexxar »

matthewmcg wrote: post #2

Probably the first time "efficient" and "shockwave-based" have appeared together in a Hacker News headline ;)

Indeed: https://hn.algolia.com/?query=efficient%20shockwave-based&so...

And your comment is the first one with this two words: https://hn.algolia.com/?query=efficient%20shockwave-based&so...

Re: MIT team invents efficient shockwave-based process for desalination of water

#14

Post by jjoonathan »

leot wrote: post #12

Does anyone know why forward osmosis (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R63zYZZuRvQ ) hasn't taken off yet? It seems like it has the biggest potential to do desalination at an extremely low cost energy-wise.

Sure, if you don't account for the energy needed to form the high-energy carbon and nitrogen compounds ("special salts") in the first place. In practice the "special salts" are either a very low efficiency fossil fuel (if you dig them out of the ground) or a really roundabout and inefficient way to spend other forms of energy.

The Haber process reduces N2 and plants reduce CO2, giving you the "special salts" (energy inputs: H2 and pump pressure for Haber, sunlight for plants). Then you burn the high-energy nitrogen+carbon compounds back into N2, H2O, and CO2 to remove them from the "forward-osmosis" solution. The sunlight, H2, and mechanical work used to create the special salts could almost certainly be used more effectively to generate electricity for reverse osmosis or distillation.

Re: MIT team invents efficient shockwave-based process for desalination of water

#15

Post by taberiand »

Rexxar wrote: post #11
matthewmcg wrote: post #2

Probably the first time "efficient" and "shockwave-based" have appeared together in a Hacker News headline ;)

Indeed: https://hn.algolia.com/?query=efficient%20shockwave-based&so... And your comment is the first one with this two words: https://hn.algolia.com/?query=efficient%20shockwave-based&so...

What is joke?

Re: MIT team invents efficient shockwave-based process for desalination of water

#16

Post by twic »

taberiand wrote: post #15
Rexxar wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed: https://hn.algolia.com/?query=efficient%20shockwave-based&so... And your comment is the first one with this two words: https://hn.algolia.com/?query=efficient%20shockwave-based&so...

What is joke?

Perhaps https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Shockwave ? If so, expect a joke about using tables for layout next.

Re: MIT team invents efficient shockwave-based process for desalination of water

#17

Post by samstave »

twic wrote: post #16
taberiand wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is joke?

Perhaps https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Shockwave ? If so, expect a joke about using tables for layout next.

Just make sure to use a salt on the data to keep your tables secure

Re: MIT team invents efficient shockwave-based process for desalination of water

#18

Post by leot »

jjoonathan wrote: post #14
leot wrote: post #12

Does anyone know why forward osmosis (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R63zYZZuRvQ ) hasn't taken off yet? It seems like it has the biggest potential to do desalination at an extremely low cost energy-wise.

Sure, if you don't account for the energy needed to form the high-energy carbon and nitrogen compounds ("special salts") in the first place. In practice the "special salts" are either a very low efficiency fossil fuel (if you dig them out of the ground) or a really roundabout and inefficient way to spend other forms of energy. The Haber process reduces N2 and plants reduce CO2, giving you the "special salts" (energy…

But in the video I shared, it's claimed that the fancy salts can be entirely reused, and that extracting them takes relatively little energy. Thus their ongoing energy impact, and the longer-term impact of their initial cost should be relatively low, no?

Re: MIT team invents efficient shockwave-based process for desalination of water

#19

Post by hackuser »

MIT's PR is more amazing than their research. How many science and technology programs are there in U.S. universities, all of them producing new discoveries? How about universities outside the U.S.?

The rate and impact of discoveries vary by school, yet it seems like half the discoveries I read about come from MIT, and often via links directly to MIT press releases (i.e., not to coverage in the news). MIT is a great school, but they can't be that great.

Re: MIT team invents efficient shockwave-based process for desalination of water

#20

Post by x1798DE »

hackuser wrote: post #19

MIT's PR is more amazing than their research. How many science and technology programs are there in U.S. universities, all of them producing new discoveries? How about universities outside the U.S.? The rate and impact of discoveries vary by school, yet it seems like half the discoveries I read about come from MIT, and often via links directly to MIT press releases (i.e., not to coverage in the news). MIT is a great…

Whenever I see one of these MIT press releases, I know to take it with a giant grain of salt. I wonder if HN will eventually start penalizing links from them as low quality.
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