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This seems like it would work nicely if you removed the concept of pipes and pumps, and replaced them with containers and gravity. I imagine a barrel of air at
by jasonkester 1y ago
This seems like it would work nicely if you removed the concept of pipes and pumps, and replaced them with containers and gravity.
I imagine a barrel of air at the surface with an osmosis filter at the opening and a big ass rock tied to it. Kick it off your barge, let it drop to the bottom and fill with filtered water. Then cut the string and let it float up for collection.
Seems like you could do that pretty cheaply.
- mattmaroon 1y agoHow do you get the floating barrel of air down there? If it floats when full of fresh water it definitely floats when full of air right?
- jasonkester 1y agoI thought the “tied to a giant rock” part sufficiently explained how to get it down there.
- mattmaroon 1y agoWhat is the energy expenditure of getting this rock there? The size of the rock is directly proportional to the amount of freshwater this container can hold right? How much energy does the barge, or whatever pulls it, spend getting itself and the rock and the container into place and back out? What is this container made of that it can be large enough for this to be feasible, it is full of only air, and it won’t just collapse under pressure at depth? How much does it weigh? We might be talking a much bigger rock than you are envisioning. You’re glossing over all sorts of energy input and engineering issues, at some point it’s easier to just pump the remaining stuff up
- cable5 1y agoYou can use the hydrostatic pressure (about 60bar) with a simple hydraulic intensifier to lift RO permeate from ~600m to ~100m depth, then finish the last stretch with a small, diver-serviceable booster. Basically you only need power to pump the final 100m which isn't bad.