11–20 of 132 posts
> In fact, the study concluded that for every liter of freshwater a plant produces, 0.4 gallons (1.5 liters) of brine are produced on average. How does removing water from solution makes more of that solution?
> this salty-ass junk Do you mean sea water? The amount of fresh water the human race will extract from the oceans will be what fraction of a percentage point of the total? Not accounting for, of course, the fact that most of it will make its way back to the oceans. If pumping it back in has a local effect, then by all means try to mitigate that. But the idea that we're producing 'toxic waste' by creating saltier sea…
[1] https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/ocean/d...
> In fact, the study concluded that for every liter of freshwater a plant produces, 0.4 gallons (1.5 liters) of brine are produced on average. How does removing water from solution makes more of that solution?
> this salty-ass junk Do you mean sea water? The amount of fresh water the human race will extract from the oceans will be what fraction of a percentage point of the total? Not accounting for, of course, the fact that most of it will make its way back to the oceans. If pumping it back in has a local effect, then by all means try to mitigate that. But the idea that we're producing 'toxic waste' by creating saltier sea…
Maybe let's not attack the journalist.
> this salty-ass junk Do you mean sea water? The amount of fresh water the human race will extract from the oceans will be what fraction of a percentage point of the total? Not accounting for, of course, the fact that most of it will make its way back to the oceans. If pumping it back in has a local effect, then by all means try to mitigate that. But the idea that we're producing 'toxic waste' by creating saltier sea…
> In fact, the study concluded that for every liter of freshwater a plant produces, 0.4 gallons (1.5 liters) of brine are produced on average. How does removing water from solution makes more of that solution?
> this salty-ass junk Do you mean sea water? The amount of fresh water the human race will extract from the oceans will be what fraction of a percentage point of the total? Not accounting for, of course, the fact that most of it will make its way back to the oceans. If pumping it back in has a local effect, then by all means try to mitigate that. But the idea that we're producing 'toxic waste' by creating saltier sea…
This isn't absurd at all. Sea water contains lots of components, not just salt. Many are non-toxic at their current concentration ; if you remove the water and pump in the rest into the ocean, you're potentially increasing the concentration enough to make it toxic. It is quite literally toxic waste. And the journalist did you the favor of linking to scientific research that says the same thing.
So the solution is obvious. Mix 1 part brine with X parts seawater before releasing. Oceans are big, so X can be a very large number, if that is necessary.
Why is this ratio so bad? What would it take to recover more water and produce more concentrated waste that could be managed differently?
Stupid question: Being that a large fraction of the problematic plants seem to exist close to or within desert countries, couldn't you simply pump it into the desert? I figure, if you find an appropriate area, you'll have not much of an ecosystem to destroy anyway and the area could eventually function as an enormous evaporation pond.
For example if they are extracting fresh water from seawater, they are probably also already using groundwater as well which your proposal would pollute.