China Turns to the Sea for Fresh Water
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China Turns to the Sea for Fresh Water
1–10 of 53 posts
Re: China Turns to the Sea for Fresh Water
#2Israel (obv a different scale than china) has recently also experienced a big push toward desal. What's interesting is there's a moore's law type of effect at play here, desal keeps getting cheaper and cheaper to the point where it's actually a practical alternative to ground water, filtering etc.
I think water will be another great Malthusian disappointment, ocean water is basically unlimited (correct me if I'm mistaken), and on a 20-50 year time horizon it seems that the world should be able to alleviate all water scarcity by tapping it.
Re: China Turns to the Sea for Fresh Water
#3Maybe they can export their excess freshwater in giant tankers to CA to solve their drought problem. They already produce most of the electronics we consume.
Re: China Turns to the Sea for Fresh Water
#4Israel (obv a different scale than china) has recently also experienced a big push toward desal. What's interesting is there's a moore's law type of effect at play here, desal keeps getting cheaper and cheaper to the point where it's actually a practical alternative to ground water, filtering etc. I think water will be another great Malthusian disappointment, ocean water is basically unlimited (correct me if I'm mist…
I suppose it depends on how hard it is to pump it uphill once it's out of the ground given that it starts at sea-level. Some of the more inland places or more uphill places might still be hard to get to with efficient desalination. Eg: Nevada
Re: China Turns to the Sea for Fresh Water
#5Why not look at something like nuclear? Since the need is both electricity and heat, a nuclear reactor seems ideal since you don't have to convert power back in to heat - you can just use it directly.
With modern recycling techniques and reactor designs the chance of meltdown and wastes are limited, but that seems better than more coal.
Not an expert on reactor design vs desal design by any means - would love an opinion on the challenges here outside the standard nuclear ones.
Re: China Turns to the Sea for Fresh Water
#6Why not look at something like nuclear? Since the need is both electricity and heat, a nuclear reactor seems ideal since you don't have to convert power back in to heat - you can just use it directly. With modern recycling techniques and reactor designs the chance of meltdown and wastes are limited, but that seems better than more coal. Not an expert on reactor design vs desal design by any means - would love an opin…
Agreed. Particularly for California which has heavy energy and water needs, nuclear desalination seems like the most future-proof approach, particularly considering the dramatic decrease in aquifer volume as groundwater is extracted to make up for drought-level rainfall.
Re: China Turns to the Sea for Fresh Water
#7Maybe they can export their excess freshwater in giant tankers to CA to solve their drought problem. They already produce most of the electronics we consume.
If that were reasonable then we would tank water in from Alaska. Or China would buy AK water.
If you want to dream big, in the 1980s there were pipe dreams of bringing in water from the Copper or the Stikine through a large off-shore pipeline to California.
Re: China Turns to the Sea for Fresh Water
#8Israel (obv a different scale than china) has recently also experienced a big push toward desal. What's interesting is there's a moore's law type of effect at play here, desal keeps getting cheaper and cheaper to the point where it's actually a practical alternative to ground water, filtering etc. I think water will be another great Malthusian disappointment, ocean water is basically unlimited (correct me if I'm mist…
What will you do with the salts and various impurities?
Re: China Turns to the Sea for Fresh Water
#9Why not look at something like nuclear? Since the need is both electricity and heat, a nuclear reactor seems ideal since you don't have to convert power back in to heat - you can just use it directly. With modern recycling techniques and reactor designs the chance of meltdown and wastes are limited, but that seems better than more coal. Not an expert on reactor design vs desal design by any means - would love an opin…
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Re: China Turns to the Sea for Fresh Water
#10Israel (obv a different scale than china) has recently also experienced a big push toward desal. What's interesting is there's a moore's law type of effect at play here, desal keeps getting cheaper and cheaper to the point where it's actually a practical alternative to ground water, filtering etc. I think water will be another great Malthusian disappointment, ocean water is basically unlimited (correct me if I'm mist…
What will you do with the salts and various impurities?
Put it back in the ocean.