Scientists cook up new recipes for taking salt out of seawater
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Re: Scientists cook up new recipes for taking salt out of seawater
#2How efficient and robust is the use of a membrane in these kinds of solution? It would seem to me that the membrane is the weakest link, and also expensive.
Re: Scientists cook up new recipes for taking salt out of seawater
#3"The current state-of-the-art in RO desalination works very well, but the cost of RO desalination driven by electricity is prohibitive,"
Why is taking salt out of sea water such a challenge?
Re: Scientists cook up new recipes for taking salt out of seawater
#4"The current state-of-the-art in RO desalination works very well, but the cost of RO desalination driven by electricity is prohibitive," Why is taking salt out of sea water such a challenge?
Is it maybe easier to capture the rain that falls from the sky instead?
The rain that falls from the sky is salt-free, right? It then becomes salty when it touches the ocean?
Re: Scientists cook up new recipes for taking salt out of seawater
#5"The current state-of-the-art in RO desalination works very well, but the cost of RO desalination driven by electricity is prohibitive," Why is taking salt out of sea water such a challenge?
Is it maybe easier to capture the rain that falls from the sky instead? The rain that falls from the sky is salt-free, right? It then becomes salty when it touches the ocean?
Yes indeed, much easier. The problem is that the places where you need desalination tend to be the places without much rain.
Re: Scientists cook up new recipes for taking salt out of seawater
#6"The current state-of-the-art in RO desalination works very well, but the cost of RO desalination driven by electricity is prohibitive," Why is taking salt out of sea water such a challenge?
Desalination is cheap in day to day terms, it’s the scale of water we use that’s the issue.
Sure, we can get ~1,000 gallons of drinking water for 3$ via desalination. That works out to a monthly water bill increase of ~45$ for a family of 5. Unfortunately, crops need incredible amounts of water. So, growing corn etc with desalination would case food prices to ~quadruple.
Re: Scientists cook up new recipes for taking salt out of seawater
#7"The current state-of-the-art in RO desalination works very well, but the cost of RO desalination driven by electricity is prohibitive," Why is taking salt out of sea water such a challenge?
Desalination is cheap in day to day terms, it’s the scale of water we use that’s the issue. Sure, we can get ~1,000 gallons of drinking water for 3$ via desalination. That works out to a monthly water bill increase of ~45$ for a family of 5. Unfortunately, crops need incredible amounts of water. So, growing corn etc with desalination would case food prices to ~quadruple.
Is drip-based watering used at scale?
Re: Scientists cook up new recipes for taking salt out of seawater
#8"The current state-of-the-art in RO desalination works very well, but the cost of RO desalination driven by electricity is prohibitive," Why is taking salt out of sea water such a challenge?
Desalination is cheap in day to day terms, it’s the scale of water we use that’s the issue. Sure, we can get ~1,000 gallons of drinking water for 3$ via desalination. That works out to a monthly water bill increase of ~45$ for a family of 5. Unfortunately, crops need incredible amounts of water. So, growing corn etc with desalination would case food prices to ~quadruple.
Why do you think that the cost is an increase?
I pay quite a bit more than $3/kgal, and a large fraction of that goes toward funding the SFPUC’s massive infrastructure for bringing Hetch Hetchy water to the Peninsula. A desalination plant would be located on the coast or on the bay and would not require this infrastructure.
As far as I’m concerned, the problem is the capital cost of the plant and the plumbing to safely suck in saltwater and discharge brine and has essentially nothing to do with electricity.
The situation isn’t helped by the fact that, in average and wet years, demand for desalinated water would be nil, since the Hetch Hetchy infrastructure already exists.
Re: Scientists cook up new recipes for taking salt out of seawater
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Desalination is cheap in day to day terms, it’s the scale of water we use that’s the issue. Sure, we can get ~1,000 gallons of drinking water for 3$ via desalination. That works out to a monthly water bill increase of ~45$ for a family of 5. Unfortunately, crops need incredible amounts of water. So, growing corn etc with desalination would case food prices to ~quadruple.
Is drip-based watering used at scale?
At what scale?