Mississippi researchers win funding for low-temperature desalination
http://www.desalination.biz/news/news_story.asp?id=8353&title=Mississippi+researchers+win+funding+for+low-temperature+desalination+
There is usually no free lunch in science and engineering.
Look at how much energy it takes to produce the electricity they use and compare to the efficiency of something like a triple or quadruple effect evaporator.
Another issue desalination promoters never seem to grasp is that vast amounts of drinking water is not very necessary. In our house, with just two of us, we use about 150 gallons per day, but drink less than 3 gallons per day. So, less than 2% of total consumption really needs to be potable..
I can flush my toilet and wash clothes in lower quality water than I drink.
“Water scarcity”??? Recently I read an amazing statistic about Kalifornia water: 50% of the Sierra snowmelt is allowed to run into the ocean. So much for the ‘drought.’ Parts of Kalifornia’s incredibly fertile central valley have been destroyed by a government-INSTITUTED drought. Some creature with the name Delta Smelt has become more important than the thousands of workers and farm owners (and more important than the millions of people that are fed by that same central valley). God bless all the people developing desalination technology. In the meantime, let’s gather and store the melting snow and store it for the NON-rainy days.
Bump!