4 ms·
How are we doing on desalination technologies?
by dreen 6y ago
How are we doing on desalination technologies?
- microcolonel 6y agoWe have heaps of fresh water in NA, I guess except in these areas (many of which seem to be in places where fresh water is scarcer). I think for many of these, it is still cheaper to bring water from a fresh water source than it is to bring it from the ocean, even if there is no desalination cost.
- gshdg 6y agoPretty sure lack of fresh water supply isn’t the problem in Philadelphia.
- pjc50 6y agoThere's a fundamental lower bound on the energy usage of desalination. The current state of the art - reverse osmosis - isn't perfect, but we should not expect factor-of-ten reductions in energy usage.
- whb07 6y agoSomewhere like Austin could definitely use solar energy to boil water couldn’t they? Not only solar panels but those mirror/reflective panels into a concentrated spot to shine?
- pjc50 6y agoAustin is ~150 miles from the sea, so you'd incur substantial pumping costs. Solar thermal "flash" desalination is one of those things that sounds obvious but is hardly ever done, so I suspect there are good reasons for that.
- jojobas 6y agoThere was (almost) never a problem running out of river water. Freshwater (i.e. river) treatment is peanuts compared to desalination. It's pumps and pipes that cost most, not filters.