The Dirty Secret of Desalination. How Do We Solve Clean Water?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ต.ค. 2024
- Desalination technology promises to provide fresh water for millions. Can we mitigate its negative effects?
In our last episode, we discussed the basics of desalination technology and how it is being used to address water shortages. Find that episode here - • Is Desalination the So...
Desalination is powerful technology, but it's not without drawbacks. It has a large energy footprint, it sends mineral-laden waste water into the ocean, and it negatively affects marine life at both ends of the process.
Most desalination plants still run on fossil fuels. Facilities fueled by renewable energy exist, but for now are limited to small-scale operations. Solar, wind, and geothermal energy are viable options for powering new desalination plants. Solar is the most common. When solar production fluctuates, a hybrid method that alternates renewable sources such as wind and solar may prove more reliable. Scientists are studying ocean power for desalination, as well as other ways to improve energy efficiency.
One promising technology, forward osmosis, separates water from dissolved solutes using a semipermeable membrane and the natural energy of osmotic pressure, requiring far less energy than the hydraulic pressure of reverse osmosis.
Another method uses low-temperature thermal desalination, which evaporates water at lower, energy-saving temperatures before reconstituting it into liquid form. But saving energy doesn't address another major issue: more than half of the seawater used in desalination is recirculated as briny wastewater laced with toxic chemicals added during the purification process. This brine is flushed back into the ocean by high-pressure jets, endangering sea life.
A recent study indicates that desalination wastewater is 50% brinier than we initially thought. Standards for releasing wastewater into the ocean vary greatly, and desalination plants frequently are clustered together in regions such as the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, all continuously discharging warm brine into shallow coastal waters. This can increase seawater temperature and salinity while decreasing overall water quality, negatively impacting coastal marine ecosystems.
The plants' initial intake of seawater also endangers marine life. Drawing water from the sea kills fish, larvae, and plankton that are inadvertently siphoned into the desalination plant. Each year, millions of sea animals are sucked into desalination plants or trapped on their intake screens. Smaller fish pass through the screens and enter the system, perishing during the chemical processing of salt water.
Reducing the volume of wastewater that flows into the ocean, and dispersing it more efficiently, can further reduce negative effects on marine life. But full adoption and good enforcement are necessary for these treatments to be effective.
California has added a Desalination Amendment to its ocean water quality control plan. The amendment establishes a standardized permit process for desalination facilities that includes particular site, design and operating standards, limiting harm to marine life.
Desalination is expensive, it has negative environmental effects, and it doesn't ensure an abundant supply of freshwater for the world's expanding population. To avoid waste in the agricultural, residential, extractive, and industrial sectors, desalination must be paired with intelligent water conservation systems.
Investments in water conservation are a more environmentally friendly alternative. Worldwide, cities with limited water resources are demonstrating how conservation may be achieved by limiting consumption through cutting-edge techniques like wastewater reuse and greywater recycling. For instance, in 2021, as Lake Mead, its primary water source, dropped to dangerously low levels, Las Vegas banned ornamental grass permanently, one of many water consumption restrictions the city has imposed. Las Vegas also uses a cutting-edge wastewater treatment procedure to clean greywater and sewage for use on golf courses, parks, and businesses. Some of the clean water is then returned to Lake Mead for future use.
To guarantee a safe, consistent supply of water for a burgeoning population, humanity will need to employ every trick in the book, and likely use a few we haven't thought of yet.
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#Water #Desalination #Science
What do you think - is desalination the answer to the water scarcity crisis?
It think it can help one thing is the water is needed.
2. The Salt can be processed. Part as Sodium. Which can be used for Batteries.
3. Just Let the brine in forms and squeeze out the water the Salt will be pressed int forms and can be used in construction
I did my M.Sc in converting desalination waste water into fertilizers (H2O+NaCl+CO2+NH3->NaHCO3+NH4Cl). Ammonium chloride NH4Cl is a great fertilizer for rice and African palms and baking soda NaHCO3 (high pH) can help neutralize (buffer) ocean acidification as well as sequester CO2.
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Can you comment on the processes you would use? I think your suggestions are much better than pumping the waste back into the ocean and disrupting ecosystems. Also, could the by-product be used to treat icy roads and runways?
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Can you share the paper? currently I'm doing a project about desalination
Glad no one is being salty in the comments yet.
Give it time.
The RO plants use electricity and only filters 90 percent the remaining 10 percent of brackish water can be used for the production of NaOH or making salts so it's not a waste strim anymore.
More work needs to be done, but we're on the right track.
You make some good points. I’m hopeful we can solve them.
It is more energy efficient to capture fresh water from rain, snow, and glacier than to spend energy to remove salt from seawater. Thus, it is best to capture all the freshwater that falls on land before it runs off into the ocean. We would thus need water channels to divert all land water into reservoirs for storage and allow the water in reservoirs to replenish ground water. And if we still need more water, then we can next resort to desalination.
It costs more money to build sth to capture all rain or snow before it lands.
Thank you for doing this. I wish more people were focused on things like this then entertainment.
Great video
Thanks for sharing
I We thank you, We thank you All ❤️🔥 😊 🙏🏻
I've already told many people. There are many clean energy ways to power the desalination plants and things nearby. Then, there's the brine that can be transported to the salt desert we already have. So we aren't destroying the ocean with brine. We already have the answers. Use them please.
shipping it out to the desert an impossible task, we're talking about millions of gallons of clean water daily and resulting brine... Last check 1 liter of clean water made 1.5 liters of brine, sulfur, and copper
@@sneauxwolfCan the by-product be used in saltwater swimming pools? My understanding is that around 75% of new pools are saltwater.
1:26 Brine is gold.
It's a valuable resource of Lithium, Uranium and acids.
I know this video was posted a year ago, but it's information is outdated about brine.
But yes it is dangerous for the ecosystem if it is put back into the ocean it not only raises the saline levels but it also changes the oxygen level.
The wall needs to be perforated to allow dessert environmental air exchange on both sides of the Line. The line shouldn't be all mirrored that will only help cook the dessert environment
If the brine percentage kept at 20-30 % only It will do less harm and might use less energy and give less fresh water but it could be a win win for the brine descharge problem
I'm sure energy can be obtained from the salt byproduct which also can be used in fertilizer
But can't the minerals be processed further?
Supercritical water cannot hold ionic salts. If deep enough water is available then desalination could happen at depth and maybe the fresh water which is lighter and now hotter could be used to generate enough energy on the way up to power the process.
can we not use ocean water for cooking? that way we wont need to add salt separately or use drinking water into cooking?
I tried it before but the food will have a very salty taste which in turn raise your blood pressure in long term.
@@CuracaoVlogs how about using 25 to 50% of sea water and normal water mix?
All sensible knows value of fresh water and ocean water and also know their volume ratio. So fresh water to saline water ratio is three percentage fresh water availability to seventy five percent oceans water required for water cycle and ecological balancing. Most importantly nature is interested in feeding and quenching only humanities never lusts and greeds of human. We have sufficient fresh water for all and managed by nature. But we are wasting and utilising for our greeds of business /industries. We need to realize nothing comes from outside planet and no pollution Goes outside the planet earth. Limitations are solutions..
Theŕe is a new technology using salt in batteries
it is Arabian gulf not persian!