Have You Heard Of Solar Desalination? If Not, You Will Soon.

[applegrove]

Have You Heard Of Solar Desalination? If Not, You Will Soon.

by Ari Phillips at Think Progress

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/07/23/3682598/first-commercial-solar-desalination-plant-in-california/

"SNIP....................


WaterFX, a San Francisco-based water producer for agricultural and commercial users, recently announced that its California subsidiary, HydroRevolution, plans to build the state’s first commercial solar desalination plant. To be located in the agriculture-intensive Central Valley, the plant will ultimately generate up to 5,000 acre-feet, or 1.6 billion gallons, of clean water per year — enough water for 10,000 homes or 2,000 acres of cropland. It will be built on 35 acres of land currently used to grow salt-tolerant crops, and will recycle unusable irrigation water from a 7,000-acre drainage area into a new and much-needed source of freshwater for nearby water districts by removing unwanted mineral and salts.

It could be a win-win for farmers and the environment.

Using something called Aqua4 technology, the desalination process creates zero excess discharge and produces only freshwater and solid salt as co-products. This differs from traditional desalination where up to half the discharge ends up as brine back in the ocean.

This is not the only way solar desalination differs from traditional reverse osmosis desalination projects, where sea water is the main input. There are currently several of these large-scale projects in use or under construction along the California coastline. Conventional desalination plants force salt and other minerals through a membrane; they are energy-intensive and can also harm marine life and disturb coastal ecosystems. The solar desalination plants developed by WaterFX use solar thermal energy to avoid the use of fossil fuel-powered electricity.

“The energy intensity of conventional reverse osmosis plants has dropped considerably over the last two decades, but they still have a relatively high energy price tag compared to other water supply and demand management strategies,” said Postel. “I see no elegance in a technology aimed at ensuring there’s enough drinking water during droughts if it employs a process that will hasten climate change, which in turn will worsen droughts.”





.................SNIP"

[itsrobert]

1. Hopefully this will work at the Salton Sea also

Reviving it.

[msongs]

2. does not say what they will do with all the blocks of salts they create. hmmm nt

[nationalize the fed]

3. oops

delete

[Nihil]

4. "... all the blocks of *polluted* salts they create."

Just in case anyone thinks that it will be some nice NaCl fit for the table ...

Those blocks will contain all of the pollutants that are currently making the
water unusable at the moment ... and now they're concentrated into a bunch
of water-soluble blocks ... yummy!

Of course, stopping people from polluting fresh water in the first place would
be "anti-business" (and don't even think of getting them to reduce their
wastage).