Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The world’s largest and cheapest reverse-osmosis desalination plant is up and running in Israel.
MIT Technology Review ^ | February 18, 2015 | David Talbot

Posted on 05/10/2015 4:29:37 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-52 next last
To: TexasGator; Reno89519

My math may be wrong, but let’s walk through that. Would we say that something like tomatoes would need about 3” of water per week? Maybe this is where I’m off. But, at 3” over an acre, which is 43560 sq. ft., that’s 81,460 gallons, at the $0.002196/gallon, I come up with $180 per acre. I didn’t look at the math on the price per gallon, but I’m guessing that’s just the construction cost and doesn’t include operating costs? Is my math wrong?


21 posted on 05/10/2015 5:33:55 PM PDT by Roos_Girl (The world is full of educated derelicts. - Calvin Coolidge)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: ClearCase_guy

Been too long since I took my water treatment classes. If they can do the RO up front before chemicals are added they could take the brine, evap out the water and sell the sea salt. :)


22 posted on 05/10/2015 5:36:30 PM PDT by Roos_Girl (The world is full of educated derelicts. - Calvin Coolidge)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: MeshugeMikey

Desalination isn’t the only thing they’re going to have to take out of west coast water. Think those membranes will be able to filter out all the radionuclides coming out of Fukushima (and currently is devastating the wildlife all along the west coast)?


23 posted on 05/10/2015 5:52:07 PM PDT by 1_Inch_Group (Country Before Party)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

But Obama prefers savages who export nothing but death


24 posted on 05/10/2015 5:53:41 PM PDT by montag813 (Pray for Israel)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Bob

http://sciencelearn.org.nz...Map-of-ocean-salinity.jpg

25 posted on 05/10/2015 6:13:58 PM PDT by BwanaNdege
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: BwanaNdege

Thanks.


26 posted on 05/10/2015 6:18:02 PM PDT by Bob (No, being a US Senator and the Secretary of State are not accomplishments; they're jobs.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: TexasGator
1,233 cubic meters per acre foot of water.

At $058 per, that's about $1,500 per acre foot.

An acre of almonds (water intensive) uses about 3-4 acre ft/yr.

$5,000/yr per acre.

It would AT LEAST double the cost of almonds...and by extension, all other crops.

It takes, on average, 5,000 gallons of water to produce a pound of beef.

Of course at least 90% of that goes back into the environment at some point in that animal's lifetime. It just may not be immediately useable in California.

Good News! Joe Bastardi is predicting a VERY strong El Nino through the fall. He's expecting heavy early season rains. In California.

We better hope so.

Major, Biblical Disaster if we don't get rain this year.

27 posted on 05/10/2015 6:25:27 PM PDT by Mariner (War Criminal #18)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: ClearCase_guy
There is a freeper who shows up on these threads and always says that the leftover brine from desal plants is highly toxic

"Organic, sustainable, locavore, ORGANIC sea salt" (highly toxic waste left after fresh water is removed from sea water)

(Same thing in a smaller quantity)

(BTW, that Freeper is correct. Salt is highly toxic and has been used for millennia to KILL BACTERIA WHICH CAUSE FOOD TO SPOIL!)

28 posted on 05/10/2015 6:28:19 PM PDT by BwanaNdege
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Bob

“Is the salt concentration lower in the Med than in the oceans? Does desal work better there or would it be about the same?”

I assume you jest...I was looking for the /s tag.


29 posted on 05/10/2015 6:43:56 PM PDT by GGpaX4DumpedTea (I am a Tea Party descendant...steeped in the Constitutional Republic given to us by the Founders)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Just think of how much water could be supplied to the smelt!


30 posted on 05/10/2015 6:45:00 PM PDT by GT1945 (islim is a devil worshipping cult)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GGpaX4DumpedTea

I was asking because I didn’t know the salinity difference between the Med and the open ocean.


31 posted on 05/10/2015 6:50:59 PM PDT by Bob (No, being a US Senator and the Secretary of State are not accomplishments; they're jobs.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: ClearCase_guy

“I don’t know anything, so I can’t say he’s wrong. But I guess Israel thinks he is.”

Dead wrong! Piss in the ocean...you have not changed the ocean.


32 posted on 05/10/2015 6:51:33 PM PDT by GGpaX4DumpedTea (I am a Tea Party descendant...steeped in the Constitutional Republic given to us by the Founders)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Interesting coincidence of timing.

I got my own whole house reverse osmosis system going just last month.


33 posted on 05/10/2015 7:07:17 PM PDT by Balding_Eagle (Is Ted Cruz himself as mean-spirited as the FR 'Click-it or Tick-it' Cruz Contingent?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: EQAndyBuzz
Water is freedom.

Yep. Desalinization will cause global warming before the the next week is out. . . or come up with some other excuse. Just one more reason for the UN to hate Israel.

34 posted on 05/10/2015 7:25:47 PM PDT by RatRipper (Obama has made me the slave of sluggards.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Bob

Not significant.


35 posted on 05/10/2015 7:29:00 PM PDT by GGpaX4DumpedTea (I am a Tea Party descendant...steeped in the Constitutional Republic given to us by the Founders)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Cool!


36 posted on 05/10/2015 7:35:39 PM PDT by St_Thomas_Aquinas ( Isaiah 22:22, Matthew 16:19, Revelation 3:7)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 1_Inch_Group

No, not even close.


37 posted on 05/10/2015 7:44:43 PM PDT by Balding_Eagle (Is Ted Cruz himself as mean-spirited as the FR 'Click-it or Tick-it' Cruz Contingent?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: Roos_Girl; TexasGator; Reno89519; 2ndDivisionVet

Sorek will profitably sell water to the Israeli water authority for 58 U.S. cents per cubic meter
...............
That works out out to $715@acre foot. The Poseidon desalination plant being built in Carlsbad California will deslinate seawater for about $2000@acre foot.

The Australians built 6 or 7 desalination plants from about 2003-2009 that produce desalinized water for 1600@acre foot.

Singapore is said to be producing desalinized water in the $500@acre foot range. Its hard to say in the case of both Singapore and Israel how much government support is behind the official numbers.

High value cash crops generally need water to be under $300@acre foot and field crops need water to be under $100@acre foot.

This will happen in time. Maybe 10-20 years. The pieces are already on the table. lftr msr thorium reactors promise to collapse the cost of energy. There are experimental membranes that allow the water to pass through them at room temperature and pressure. There are technologies available which turn Na and Cl into a profit center instead of a cost center. Material research is yielding materials that are ever more resistant to the corrosive effects of salt water.

These technologies will someday come together. And the planet will be radically changed. Because cheap desalinized water and transport will effectively turn the deserts green and double the size of the habitable earth.

California used to understand water and plan ahead for decades. The last governor who did that was Jerry Brown’s dad Pat. Jerry just thinks of vain things like Bullet trains snail darters.

Maybe the current drought will slap some sense into the genius inventors of silicon valley as to the true priorities of California.

Someone might tell Elon Musk that the way to the deserts of Mars leads through the deserts of California.


38 posted on 05/10/2015 8:08:06 PM PDT by ckilmer (q)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: ClearCase_guy

Don’t know about that, but Aruba has had a large desalinization plant for years, providing wonderful, germ-free, potable water to the entire island, and then the (Dutch) gubmint makes money selling the salt that results from the process. The Jews are very intelligent and clever, but the Dutch are no slouches, either.


39 posted on 05/10/2015 8:10:36 PM PDT by Tucker39 (Welcome to America! Now speak English; and keep to the right....In driving, in Faith, and politics.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: beethovenfan

But the plant was built atop the only known habitat of the Green Creek Rat Flea.


40 posted on 05/10/2015 8:13:15 PM PDT by Dagnabitt (Islamic Immigration is Treason)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-52 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson