4 ms·
Yeah, if I was gonna build a desalination plant built to use <$0 cost electricity, I would essentially build a giant (distillation) still. I'm not a process exp
by CompelTechnic 8y ago
Yeah, if I was gonna build a desalination plant built to use <$0 cost electricity, I would essentially build a giant (distillation) still. I'm not a process expert in flash desalination, but it looks similar to (maybe identical to) a still.
Just a big resistor in a big tank (or pond), a big fume hood and coil to another tank. Capital cost can probably be minimized a whole lot.
- bufferoverflow 8y agoYou can use sun light directly for that. Just paint your boiler black, maybe concentrate some sunlight with cheap mirrors.
- hogwild 8y agoYea but not at night.
- imtringued 8y agoThe entire point of this discussion is to figure out how to use electricity only during the day.
- nine_k 8y agoThis works well when you have a lot of sun. Instead you might have a lot of wind. Also, you only want to run the desalination plant when the electricity price is too low ("below zero" with the transmission included), so you want generators for most of the time, when you actually sell the power.
- nkurz 8y agoSeeing as "boiling the ocean" is the standard business phrase used to dismiss an overly ambitious and likely impossible to execute plan [1], there would be something beautifully ironic about a startup whose explicit goal is to solve a real world problem by literally boiling the ocean. [1] http://workingwithmckinsey.blogspot.com/2013/11/Avoid-Boiling-the-Ocean-at-McKinsey.html http://workingwithmckinsey.blogspot.com/2013/11/Avoid-Boilin...