Isa's Homestead Happenings and Hangout

[KayisforKale]

it isn't quite that simple. Removing the salt from the water doesn't make the salt go away, so you have this super salt waste sludge (called brine) left over after you're done. It also often contains other minerals and biological waste (plankton, pathogens, etc) and is somewhat hazardous. Common practice is to dump it back into the ocean / aquifer you're sourcing from, but that messes up the salinity of the native ecosystem and kills off plants and animals.

I mentioned the energy use cost, it's crazy high. Current desalination tech in the US costs 2x (on average) more than just piping water in from someplace else. Until it's cheaper, it won't happen.

AZ is currently doing a longterm study with a company based out of Israel to look into setting up a plant on the sea of Cortez in Mexico and pipe a million acre feet of water up. That could be a 3-5 billion a year recurring cost.

To make it really efficient, we need cheaper energy sources (Better solar/wind/fusion most likely) And a solid approach to safely reintroducing the byproduct or developing a secondary use for it (perhaps as fertilizer components or some alternate energy source).

Neither of those are going to happen on a time scale sooner than decades at best.

I should really start a science thread.

Do you have a degree in it or something? Or did you look all of this up yourself?

 

[KayisforKale]

We toured a submarine(USS Cod) that is docked on Lake Erie, a few years ago. They had water tanks on it that turned the ocean water into fresh. I believe it was a WWII sub

Wow! I would love to see that in person. I had no idea desalination even existed outside of sci-fi books. Except on small scales, like how to survive on a stranded island type of thing.

 

[azurbanclucker]

Do you have a degree in it or something? Or did you look all of this up yourself?

 

[KayisforKale]

You know things because you drink, but you drink because you know things.

 

[azurbanclucker]

You know things because you drink, but you drink because you know things.

Well, no, I drink because I don't want to die of dehydration. Knowing things is just gravy.

 

[KayisforKale]

Well, no, I drink because I don't want to die of dehydration. Knowing things is just gravy.

But you would not drink if you did not know that you could die from not drinking.


(In all honesty, I thought you meant that you drink alcohol. )

 

[bill3607]

Ever walk on the beach barefoot in the summer? That sand is about 4 degrees away from spontaneous combustion.

More times than I can remember. The sand on the beaches, at least on the Gulf, are not hot, but cool.

 

[bill3607]

I said the Gulf, but the Atlantic side of Florida beaches are the same cool feeling. I haven't been to the Atlantic side in a long time, but I don't remember the sand being hot over there either.

 

[KayisforKale]

More times than I can remember. The sand on the beaches, at least on the Gulf, are not hot, but cool.

I said the Gulf, but the Atlantic side of Florida beaches are the same cool feeling. I haven't been to the Atlantic side in a long time, but I don't remember the sand being hot over there either.

So you guys catch fire everywhere, but your beaches have cool sand? We tend to be cold everywhere but our sand will literally burn the skin off your feet (my mom got 3rd degree burns on her feet just by stepping onto the sand). Polar opposites.

 

[bill3607]

So you guys catch fire everywhere, but your beaches have cool sand? We tend to be cold everywhere but our sand will literally burn the skin off your feet (my mom got 3rd degree burns on her feet just by stepping onto the sand). Polar opposites.

We don’t have that many fires here. It’s too humid