UAE plans to drag an ICEBERG from Antarctica to provide drinking water for millions

Daily Mail ^ | 05/05/2017 | Tim Collins

[Ozark Tom]

Forward osmosis may become less expensive than hydraulic pressurized membrane desalination technology.

A draw solution of a high concentration of thermally unstable salt creates the needed pressure differential across the membrane, then the water enriched brine is mildly heated which decomposes the salt into gases.

[Reno89519]

Is this a good idea from global warming perspective? And what about displaced marine and animal life? /s

[Bulwyf]

In all fairness, it’s only a few thousand years, but still gross all the same heh.

[A strike]

Cool : )
This I’ve gotta see, and hope I do.

[Ozark Tom]

1,500,000 gallons fuel low-end estimate for the tow? Gonna need underway replenishment, or a rotating team of tow vessels.

At the destination, as 90% of the berg is subsurface, a large berg due to draft must be processed in fairly deep water and employ lightering for transfer to shore; or, perhaps use a floating pipeline terminal such as the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP).

[Redwood71]

Let me get this straight: they want someone to tow an iceberg from Antarctica to Arabia to cover a 25 year drought? Did anyone tell them that the temperature of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf alone was in excess of 80 degrees fahrenheit as we speak? And the temp at south Africa going up their eastern seaboard is in excess of 70 degrees? Add that to it being around four thousand miles up the seaboard at the maximum speed of the world's largest tugboat, The Methane Princess, 13 knots, and you're talking about 15 miles and hour, and you're talking about 11 days temps. Hope they have some ice to keep their ice from melting. Good luck with that. rwood

[Safetgiver]

An old idea - but maybe for real this time? .....The plans were made 25 years ago. Never thought they’d dust them off.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

UAE plans to drag an ICEBERG from Antarctica to provide drinking water for millions

Does this make more sense economically than building desalination plants?

[null and void]

+1

[moehoward]

“As if leftists could tell the North Pole from the South on a map.”

Ain’t that the truth. They just know Bush and Trump have melted all the ice. Heartless bastages.

[A strike]

Cool : )
This I’ve gotta see, and hope I do.

[Parmy]

Gee! I thought that according to Al Gore and his cronies that the ice in the Antarctic was receding. So how is there enough to drag away to be melted, anyway?

[Keyhopper]

Move closer to the water

[Keyhopper]

You forgot the old people

[Keyhopper]

Puffins, don’t forget the puffins!

[FourtySeven]

Haha yes I hadn’t thought of that.

Isn’t this how all the B movies from the 50’s started?

“The government hauls ice from the polar caps to solve thirst in the world, but unbeknownst to the Feds, the ice contained the seeds for: the Blob!”

[rrrod]

Spent 17 yrs working around the ME N&W Africa.

[semaj]

They have a number of desal plants working 24-7 to supply fresh water to the approx 8 million in country. Problem is there is only a 3 day supply if they were to fail.

[PLMerite]

They could get a better deal on one from Greenland, but it won’t fit thru the Suez Canal.

[Scrambler Bob]

All these numbers, and a calculator. This is like a story problem. Shovel ready for Common Core.

20 billion gallons of water for 1 million people for 5 years works out to about 11 gallons per person per day.

Not enough to flush a toilet, but maybe that’s where they save some.

Same 20 billion gallons computes to a frozen cube about 1/4 mile on a side.

Most will be below the surface. Towing is problematic. Time consuming, and the other towing difficulties mentioned. Heck, Just fly the thing up there, they have the Emirates Airlines. And their mooslime logic.

Better get started, and don’t skimp on the video. They can make a Documentary for PBS television for next year’s ERF day.