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>If desalination was cost effective it would be being done today at scale An official from Irish Water (national water management agency) was being interviewed

>If desalination was cost effective it would be being done today at scale An official from Irish Water (national water management agency) was being interviewed a while ago explaining that even if desalination was cost effective it has to be cut with fresh water at a ratio of 2:1 (I may be misremembering the exact ratio) because fully desalinated water leeches metal from the pipes.

elcritch 2y ago
It’s possible to treat high purity water other ways. Essentially just adding in some minerals.
- kylebenzle 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - DonHopkins 2y ago
    [flagged]
hughesjj 2y ago
Our of curiosity, is there any way to line the pipes with PVC or similar? Like a large scale version of those "pipe fixers" they pump up with air/water that lines existing pipes and hardens in place? I could see problems with that, and of course cost is always one of the biggest, possibly health too, it's just weird to me that we don't seem to have a solution for this
- noduerme 2y ago
  RO water can strip chemicals from PVC, so it would be substituting one poison for another. Treating the water with minerals seems a much more practical way to go.
  - 3eb7988a1663 2y ago
    I am finding numbers that US tap water has on the order of ~10mgs minerals/L water. Doping water with some combination of calcium/potassium/magnesium/whatever certainly sounds easier than alternatives.
- rsync 2y ago
  There are many solutions to this, and I would not consider it to be one of the foremost complications in a de salinization project. Very large format, plastic water, main pipes exist… As do concrete pipes, etc.
wbl 2y ago
A sacrificial metal bed could work as a solution.
WalterBright 2y ago
Just have some of the seawater bypass the desalination and mix it in.
idiotsecant 2y ago
Oh no, how could we ever manage the impossible technique of dissolving minerals back into water?? Truly, this technology is doomed.

elcritch 2y ago

It’s possible to treat high purity water other ways. Essentially just adding in some minerals.

kylebenzle 2y ago
[flagged]
- DonHopkins 2y ago
  [flagged]

hughesjj 2y ago

Our of curiosity, is there any way to line the pipes with PVC or similar? Like a large scale version of those "pipe fixers" they pump up with air/water that lines existing pipes and hardens in place? I could see problems with that, and of course cost is always one of the biggest, possibly health too, it's just weird to me that we don't seem to have a solution for this

noduerme 2y ago
RO water can strip chemicals from PVC, so it would be substituting one poison for another. Treating the water with minerals seems a much more practical way to go.
- 3eb7988a1663 2y ago
  I am finding numbers that US tap water has on the order of ~10mgs minerals/L water. Doping water with some combination of calcium/potassium/magnesium/whatever certainly sounds easier than alternatives.
rsync 2y ago
There are many solutions to this, and I would not consider it to be one of the foremost complications in a de salinization project. Very large format, plastic water, main pipes exist… As do concrete pipes, etc.

wbl 2y ago

A sacrificial metal bed could work as a solution.

WalterBright 2y ago

Just have some of the seawater bypass the desalination and mix it in.

idiotsecant 2y ago

Oh no, how could we ever manage the impossible technique of dissolving minerals back into water?? Truly, this technology is doomed.