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> We'll develop mass production de-salinification plants and have enough water. And then you'll have the brine problem.
by drysine 2y ago
> We'll develop mass production de-salinification plants and have enough water.
And then you'll have the brine problem.
- grvdrm 2y agoI'm asking naively and honestly: is there a solution to brine? Believe it's pumped directly back into ocean at the moment.
- throwup238 2y agoDesal plants use static mixers to mix the brine with a bunch of ocean water and pump it back out. The specifics depend on the local ecology and ocean currents but it’s a matter of making the outfall pipes long enough (they’re kilometers long usually).
- tomrod 2y agoBrine is probably very valuable. If we make it a slurry, perhaps we could use it to pump to unpopulated areas with endorheic lakes like the Salt Lake or Salton Sea, then mine and refine the resulting slurry.[0] The concern is the brine getting into the atmosphere -- that can likely be mitigated. [0] https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/gold.html https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/gold.html
- giorgioz 2y agoTwo step forwards one step back. Doesn't mean the step back made the two step forward not good. I was not familiar with the concept of brine. I thought we would extract the salt from the water and store it. Maybe use it for construction material like with the CO2 extracted from the atmosphere. I'm not an expert and I might have the Dunning-Kruger effect on this. It might be a lot harder than I can imagine/know at this moment but it might still be worth it and necessary.
- TrapLord_Rhodo 2y agobrine can be used for mineral extraction.
- tills13 2y agoI'm guessing there's local ecology issues with this? Groundwater seepage, etc. Though that hasn't really stopped fracking so maybe it'll just be a non-issue at the policy level.
- TrapLord_Rhodo 2y agoNo, Tesla does DLE. But they are the only ones who have been able to make it work.
- horrible-hilde 2y agoand storing cheese
- dml2135 2y agoCan you explain this problem for those unfamiliar?
- drysine 2y agohttps://www.scientificamerican.com/article/slaking-the-worlds-thirst-with-seawater-dumps-toxic-brine-in-oceans/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/slaking-the-world...