quatrotritikali

It seems that everyone has been talking about Global Warming, and the fact that the water is disappearing...lakes and reservoirs being drained dry, river water being diverted to sustain crops and the continuing spread of humanity into the deserts and other arid places in the country, etc.

According to Time magazine (March 31, 2008), seven Western states use water from the Colorado River. Nevada's portion is only 2%...of which 90% of that goes to Las Vegas. Overall, 85% of Colorado River water is used for agricultural purposes, the rest going towards towns and cities.

The simple answer to the water problems is via desalinization plants. These plants are expensive to build and maintain, but overall savings would vastly offset any up-front expenses. Coastal desalinization plants along the coasts of California, Oregon, and/or Washington could produce enough fresh water to sustain not only our growing cities, but also agriculture. Fresh water pipelines could be built to carry water from the coasts to places such as Las Vegas, Arizona, etc....places that really need the water. This would also reduce demand on the Colorado Rivers, which would help restore the dwindling reservoirs such as Lake Mead.

Desalinization plants built along the Gulf of Mexico and along the Atlantic coast would also be welcomed...providing the eastern part of the United States with a never-ending fresh water source.

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1069

Good idea.
How much fuel would it take to run such places though, I wonder?

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quatrotritikali

[edit] Co-generation
Cogeneration is the process of using excess heat from power production to accomplish another task. In the sense of desalination, cogeneration is the production of potable water from seawater or brackish groundwater in an integrated, or "dual-purpose", facility in which a power plant is used as the source of energy for the desalination process. The facility’s energy production may be dedicated entirely to the production of potable water (a stand-alone facility), or excess energy may be produced and incorporated into the energy grid (a true cogeneration facility). There are various forms of cogeneration, and theoretically any form of energy production could be used. However, the majority of current and planned cogeneration desalination plants use either fossil fuels or nuclear power as their source of energy. Most plants are located in the Middle East or North Africa, due to their petroleum resources and subsidies. The advantage of dual-purpose facilities is that they can be more efficient in energy consumption, thus making desalination a more viable option for drinking water in areas of scarce water resources. [8][9]

...A number of factors determine the capital and operating costs for desalination: capacity and type of facility, location, feed water, labor, energy, financing and concentrate disposal. Desalination stills now control pressure, temperature and brine concentrations to optimize the water extraction efficiency. Nuclear-powered desalination might be economical on a large scale, and there is a pilot plant in the former USSR.[12]

...Israel is now desalinizing water at a cost of US$0.53 per cubic meter.[15] Singapore is desalinizing water for US$0.49 per cubic meter.[16] Many large coastal cities in developed countries are considering the feasibility of seawater desalination, due to its cost effectiveness compared with other water supply options, which can include mandatory installation of rainwater tanks or stormwater harvesting infrastructure. Studies have shown that desalination is among the most cost-effective options for boosting water supply in major Australian state capitals.[citation needed] The city of Perth has been successfully[citation needed] operating a reverse osmosis seawater desalination plant since 2006, and the West Australian government has announced that a second plant will be built to service the city's needs. A desalination plant is to be built in Australia's largest city, Sydney, and Wonthaggi, Victoria in the near future.[17]

The Perth desalination plant is powered partially by renewable energy from the Emu Downs Wind Farm[18]. The Sydney plant will be powered entirely from renewable sources[19], thereby eliminating harmful greenhouse gas emissions to the environment, a common argument used against seawater desalination due to the energy requirements of the technology. The purchase or production of renewable energy to power desalination plants naturally adds to the capital and/or operating costs of desalination. However, recent experience in Perth and Sydney indicates that the additional cost is acceptable to communities, as a city may then augment its water supply without doing environmental harm to the atmosphere.

...Desalination - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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I would have to do more research, but I think that a desalination plant built using and producing geothermal energy would help defray annual costs of these plants. Water siphoned from the ocean could be converted into electricity through water turbines...which would be used to operate the plants. The feasibility of this has not been proven, of course, as most nations use either fossil fuels or nuclear power to operate their plants. Perhaps small nuclear facilities could be built specifically for desalination plants. Nuclear energy is stable for up to 60 years or so before spent fuel rods would need to be removed and stored. Our own nucler plants have been in continuous operation for over 30 years in some cases...with no major problems whatsoever. The NRC has suggested that these very nuke plants could be useful for another 30 years or so before the need arises to shut them down permanently.

We must do something about water. We cannot keep siphoning off the rivers in our country. Our reservoirs are drying up quickly. The vast underground water reservoirs are drying up, as agricultural needs continue to tap the water below ground. Our country is going to be in a fine mess soon without an adequate supply of water. Now is the time the U.S. should take the initiative and begin investing in future sustainable energy sources. The time for committees and talking about doing something is over.

jfuh

Desalination is a good option but there is the HUGE problem of the brine associated with most desalination techniques.
It would be practical though to simply generate salt for various uses - salting winter roads ect.
Again it's easy to over come these problems though but they need to be addressed before we start.
The other is the obvious concern of costs. Would you wash a car with desalinated water?

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UtahBill

Nothing wrong with washing your car with desalinated water, not at all. We willingly pay huge sums to drink "purified" water every day. That is just as wasteful. Injecting common sense here, are we?
As for brine, if you are doing this along a coast line, just pump it out to sea, where it will be carried off in ocean currents. The ocean saline content will not be affected to any measureable extent.
All power plants that use steam to turn the turbines generate a lot of excess heat that gets removed using cooling towers. That excess heat could be used as part of the desalinization process.

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American

Removing more heat from the process doesn't change the chemical output of pollutants to the environment. So you're burning oil more efficiently. CO2 is still produced.

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