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IIRC These can have thier own host of problems because the 'brine' byproduct doesn't mix well back into the ocean and can settle/pool and create marine dead zon
by Dennip 3y ago
IIRC These can have thier own host of problems because the 'brine' byproduct doesn't mix well back into the ocean and can settle/pool and create marine dead zones. Although suppose that will be less of a priority if people are thirsty.
- piyh 3y agoPut them down stream of farm runoff so everything is already dead
- dghlsakjg 3y agoFarm runoff normally has the opposite effect, providing too many nutrients causing things like algal blooms.
- TeMPOraL 3y agoSo the brine and the farm runoff will cancel out and the result will be just right for nature. Right? Right?
- EvanAnderson 3y agoAlways a good time for[0]: Skinner: Well, I was wrong; the lizards are a godsend. Lisa: But isn't that a bit short-sighted? What happens when we're overrun by lizards? Skinner: No problem. We simply release wave after wave of Chinese needle snakes. They'll wipe out the lizards. Lisa: But aren't the snakes even worse? Skinner: Yes, but we're prepared for that. We've lined up a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on snake meat. Lisa: But then we're stuck with gorillas! Skinner: No, that's the beautiful part. When wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death. [0] https://youtube.com/watch?v=P9yruQM1ggc https://youtube.com/watch?v=P9yruQM1ggc
- swayvil 3y agoBuild cities from stabilized salt. Bricks, grout, pourable slabs.
- gonzo41 3y agoWe pump brine inland to a large flat expendabe plain and flood it to allow the water to evaporate off and the salt to sette. 20-50 years later, pod racing on the salt flat.
- Dennip 3y agoI think this causes its own host of issues as there are a load of other nasties such as arsenic etc in seawater which would build up there.
- djbusby 3y agoArsenic in Pod fuel too.
- _puk 3y agoHow does that work for e.g. small scale salt farming in many European countries that flood areas with sea water, then harvest the salt after the water has evaporated [0]? Is it just a case of the scale making it safe? 0: https://www.timeout.com/croatia/things-to-do/ston-salt-works https://www.timeout.com/croatia/things-to-do/ston-salt-works
- aziaziazi 3y agoI think so, yes. One person salt consumption seems wayyy less than the brime that would be created by desalination of the freshwater he needs.
- aziaziazi 3y agoThe desalination plan provide water when the groundwater reservoirs are too low to fulfill freshwater demand. The brine slowly go down through geological layers. After 5 years it reaches groundwater reservoir. 20-50 years later, the regions become famous for its fun pod racing and for its numerous ghost cities around the old plain.
- fshbbdssbbgdd 3y agoThe ocean is way too big for removing some drinking water (which is going to end up back in the ocean anyway) to have a material effect on the salt concentration. The problem is strictly local: if the brine produced by the plant is dumped in an area with low flow, it can hang around and affect sea life. If you use a big discharge pipe and put it a decent distance offshore in a current where it can mix effectively, there’s very little effect. This is not a reason to shoot down desalination plants as a concept, it’s a design constraint to take into account when building them.
- adgjlsfhk1 3y agothe hard part is what water of different salinity doesn't mix the way you think it should
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- otikik 3y agoThat always looked like a no-problem to me. Can't the brine be put in a pool and let evaporate instead? You get drinking water from the desalination plant and salt.
- dylan604 3y agoInstead of pumping the brine into a pool, pump it into a ship. As the ship sails, it slowly releases the brine at a rate much more tolerable. When the tanks are 50% empty, turn around and come home. lather rinse repeat. of course, a renewable powered ship
- RajT88 3y agoThere are commercial salt harvesting operations which use such brine. No need to flush it back in the ocean. If you have ever flown into SFO you have seen the reddish pools. (By the way the red color comes from Brine Shrimp, which presumably there is also use for) https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/salt-ponds-san-francisco https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/salt-ponds-san-francisco
- blacksmith_tb 3y agoWhich is good, but may not potentially scale up - if we were desalinating 5X, 10X as much seawater, it seems unlikely we could make use of that much salt, and would have to bury it or dispose of it some other way.
- RajT88 3y agoPeople are considering using salt as a building material now: https://www.archdaily.com/994769/could-salt-be-a-material-of-the-future-innovating-with-crystallized-salt-panels https://www.archdaily.com/994769/could-salt-be-a-material-of... When you have a practically free resource which is waste from a large scale industrial process, cottage industries to make use of the free waste sometimes pop up. It's a solvable problem.
- 3y ago
- wasm123 3y agoWe had the same problem with power plants dumping hot untreated water back in the environment. This is why cooling towers are synonymous with nuclear power plants. This is an easy solution to fix, but like all engineering it costs extra. For power plants it was fixed through legislation. You literally have an entire oceans worth of water to reconstitute the brine. This was more problematic of older system using distillation.
- Seattle3503 3y agoPeople are coming up with some wacky solutions, but am I missing something or can you just pull in more seawater and dilute the brine closer to the ocean's natural salinity before you send it back into the ocean?