3 ms·

Why don't they create a huge "sea" using concrete and just dump the brine there? I'd imagine if they built it large enough, they could dump all the brine they n

• dalke 10y ago
  The evaporation rate is too low. From http://www.ide-tech.com/blog/b_case_study/sorek-project/ http://www.ide-tech.com/blog/b_case_study/sorek-project/ assume 26,000 m³/hour of brine outflow. According to http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/evaporation-water-surface-d_690.html http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/evaporation-water-surface-... , 1000 sq. meters of water surface evaporates under 500 kg/hour. 26,000 m³ = 26,000,000 kg => 52,000,000 sq. meters are needed or 52 sq. km. However, as the salinity increases, the evaporation rate decreases. If I read http://www.actis.com.au/evaporation_rate_of_brines.pdf http://www.actis.com.au/evaporation_rate_of_brines.pdf correctly, a saturated saline needs almost 50% more area for the same evaporation rate. So, call it 75 sq. km. for your evaporation pan/sea. Oh, and double it because night-time. And add more safety factor because of rain. Perhaps 200 sq. km will do? That's a huge area. As a quick check, some of the storm waves in the eastern Med. can be 5 meters high - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0378383985900249 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/03783839859... . So you're talking about some massive walls. To say nothing of redundancy, since you don't want the sea to breach a nearly full basin of salt.