CA drought, desalinating sea water

[Hitch]

Big talk here. Santa Barbara for example, can desalinate enough sea water to supply 90% of the whole city.

Now there are 3 huge projects underway in Southern California to do the same.

More at the link...

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Southern-Californian-Desalination-Plant-to-Be-Largest-on-West-Coast-298828791.html

[Cebu_4_2]

What will they do with the salt is my question. If they can provide it with shipping to the eastern states that use salt on roadways it very well could work. And also all those eastern states will have to stop supporting local salt mining operations. Win win situation.

What you think?

[Shami-Amourae]

What will they do with the salt is my question. If they can provide it with shipping to the eastern states that use salt on roadways it very well could work. And also all those eastern states will have to stop supporting local salt mining operations. Win win situation.

What you think?

What happens to the salt? The desalination plant typically uses three kilograms of seawater to produce 1 kilogram of fresh water. The extracted salt dissolves in the excess sea water used in the process to form so-called brine. The brine is returned to the sea where it is diluted again in its natural medium.


Can salt be recovered? The usual desalination processes do not provide for such recovery. Whereas they concentrate seawater 1.5 times, recovery of salt would require seawater to be concentrated ten times. Under such conditions the first crystals would appear in the brine. This would require a lot of energy and cannot be justified on an economic standpoint. Today whenever a large surface area is available close to a sunny seashore, salt pans, which make use of solar energy, are still the best method of salt production.



http://www.sidem-desalination.com/en/Process/FAQ/

[Spectrism]

What do they do about radiaoactive contamination? This will shut them down if word gets out about Fuku spores getting through.

[Shami-Amourae]

What do they do about radiaoactive contamination? This will shut them down if word gets out about Fuku spores getting through.

Desalination uses reverse osmosis which will typically removes most/all of radioactive contaminants.

There's virtually no drawbacks to it other than it uses a ton of electricity.

[Spectrism]

Desalination uses reverse osmosis which will typically remove most/all of radioactive contaminants.

There's virtually no drawbacks to it other than it uses a ton of electricity.


RO or distillation? Even with RO there is molecular pass-through. With distiallation there is gassification of the contaminants.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezk_Qn8C7CY

[Shami-Amourae]

RO or distillation? Even with RO there is molecular pass-through. With distiallation there is gassification of the contaminants.

Reverse Osmosis. That's the standard method from my knowledge.

Reverse Osmosis has clean and waste water (see Post #3.) (http://gold-silver.us/forum/showthread.php?82926-CA-drought-desalinating-sea-water&p=768393&viewfull=1#post768393) Distillation doesn't.

[Hitch]

Desalination uses reverse osmosis which will typically remove most/all of radioactive contaminants.

There's virtually no drawbacks to it other than it uses a ton of electricity.

That's not being talked about or addressed, how much energy is required for desalination and where it's going to come from. If desalination is going to be a solution for CA on a big scale, it would be good to know how we plan on generating the required energy.

[Shami-Amourae]

That's not being talked about or addressed, how much energy is required for desalination and where it's going to come from. If desalination is going to be a solution for CA on a big scale, it would be good to know how we plan on generating the required energy.

Yeah definitely. If they are going to do more desalinization plants they will also need to do more power plants, and we all know how well that will go over with the environmental extremist.

[madfranks]

That's not being talked about or addressed, how much energy is required for desalination and where it's going to come from. If desalination is going to be a solution for CA on a big scale, it would be good to know how we plan on generating the required energy.

Energy has a price, and so does water. If the actual market level prices of each were allowed to shift to their true values (instead of both being manipulated and subsidized by gov't), people could perform cost/benefit analyses to make calculated decisions on the benefits of desalination plants. But politicians are too busy trying to control people and amass power, so their solution is to ban water use. A distant family member in CA cheered the water bans and rationing, too bad her like most people, think banning and rationing is better than working to increase production.

[Hitch]

Energy has a price, and so does water. If the actual market level prices of each were allowed to shift to their true values (instead of both being manipulated and subsidized by gov't), people could perform cost/benefit analyses to make calculated decisions on the benefits of desalination plants. But politicians are too busy trying to control people and amass power, so their solution is to ban water use. A distant family member in CA cheered the water bans and rationing, too bad her like most people, think banning and rationing is better than working to increase production.

I agree. The water rationing is counter productive to the water companies as well. I heard about a guy who rationed based upon the recommendation of the city he lived in. He cut his water use by 30% based on what the water company wanted. Then, when the water company realized they had less money coming in from less water use....they raised their rates. Now, that guy is paying the same amount of money as he was before, but still using 30% less water.

He is less than happy about that.

[EE_]

I agree. The water rationing is counter productive to the water companies as well. I heard about a guy who rationed based upon the recommendation of the city he lived in. He cut his water use by 30% based on what the water company wanted. Then, when the water company realized they had less money coming in from less water use....they raised their rates. Now, that guy is paying the same amount of money as he was before, but still using 30% less water.

He is less than happy about that.

I say use it all up together until it's all gone. There's no fair way to distribute water and no one will get equal shares. No one will conserve equally.
Take that long shower, wash the car, top the pool off and water the garden out back.
Get your share now!

These people don't care about conserving for you.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/2a/66/36/2a66366e5cc9fcd3ca713f50ca74158d.jpg
http://www.lindsay.com/stuff/contentmgr/files/0/87f701593e580725572a234e28931cdc/image/_resized/80_824_325_istock_000004617287large_hero.jpg
http://cdn.bleacherreport.net/images_root/article/media_slots/photos/000/712/689/chris-bosh-california-mansion-16_original.jpg?1360109253

[Hitch]

I say use it all up together until it's all gone. There's no fair way to distribute water and no one will get equal shares. No one will conserve equally.

Sure, there's a fair way to give everyone a chance to conserve equally. Take taxes, for example. Those that earn more pay a higher income tax rate. Now, taxes are unfair because you are taxed more for producing/earning more. More hard work, more taxes. Take the exact opposite of production.....consumption. Consuming water. What is unfair for taxes, is very fair for water.

If you consume more than XX amount, you get put into a higher water rate. If you have a huge pool to maintain, that puts you in an even higher water rate. If a person wants to waste water on things that aren't needed, they pay more than the guy who is doing his part to conserve.

[EE_]

Sure, there's a fair way to give everyone a chance to conserve equally. Take taxes, for example. Those that earn more pay a higher income tax rate. Now, taxes are unfair because you are taxed more for producing/earning more. More hard work, more taxes. Take the exact opposite of production.....consumption. Consuming water. What is unfair for taxes, is very fair for water.

If you consume more than XX amount, you get put into a higher water rate. If you have a huge pool to maintain, that puts you in an even higher water rate. If a person wants to waste water on things that aren't needed, they pay more than the guy who is doing his part to conserve.

So how will higher rates save any water? The rich will just pay a bigger bill each month and use the same exorbitant amout of water. There's a lot of very wealthy people in CA that can afford any price you throw at them. They will only pay so much, not exceed having their water trucked in from another state...like maybe Idaho.

Then what do you do with the farm corporations that take the lions share of water, to profit off selling the food to other parts of the world?

[Hitch]

So how will higher rates save any water? The rich will just pay a bigger bill each month and use the same exorbitant amout of water. There's a lot of very wealthy people in CA that can afford any price you throw at them. They will only pay so much, not exceed having their water trucked in from another state...like maybe Idaho.

So the extra money they pay can fund desalination projects!! As far as the farm corps, they should be encouraged to feed folks in the United States. They should have a lower rate than the corporations that decide to sell to other parts of the world.

The idea here is to discourage consumption. We consume way to much.

[EE_]

So the extra money they pay can fund desalination projects!! As far as the farm corps, they should be encouraged to feed folks in the United States. They should have a lower rate than the corporations that decide to sell to other parts of the world.

The idea here is to discourage consumption. We consume way to much.

"encourage/discourage" is like saying to encourage/discourage Wall Street from stealing so much money...same people.