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Pentagon weapons-maker finds method for cheap, clean water
Yahoo ^ | 13 Mar 2013 | David Alexander

Posted on 03/18/2013 7:34:33 PM PDT by shove_it

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A defense contractor better known for building jet fighters and lethal missiles says it has found a way to slash the amount of energy needed to remove salt from seawater, potentially making it vastly cheaper to produce clean water at a time when scarcity has become a global security issue.

The process, officials and engineers at Lockheed Martin Corp say, would enable filter manufacturers to produce thin carbon membranes with regular holes about a nanometer in size that are large enough to allow water to pass through but small enough to block the molecules of salt in seawater. A nanometer is a billionth of a meter. Because the sheets of pure carbon known as graphene are so thin - just one atom in thickness - it takes much less energy to push the seawater through the filter with the force required to separate the salt from the water, they said.

The development could spare underdeveloped countries from having to build exotic, expensive pumping stations needed in plants that use a desalination process called reverse osmosis...

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Technical
KEYWORDS: lockheedmartin; water
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1 posted on 03/18/2013 7:34:33 PM PDT by shove_it
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To: shove_it

Freeing people in 3rd world areas from water issues means a development boom. So this cannot be allowed. It clashes with ‘the plan’.


2 posted on 03/18/2013 7:37:26 PM PDT by Norm Lenhart
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To: shove_it

Great news if they can perfect the membrane.


3 posted on 03/18/2013 7:41:14 PM PDT by LuvFreeRepublic
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To: shove_it

So liberals are wrong once again. Human beings are the ultimate resource and we can work out way out of scarcity.


4 posted on 03/18/2013 7:50:57 PM PDT by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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To: shove_it

Interesting!


5 posted on 03/18/2013 7:57:18 PM PDT by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both)
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To: 1010RD
So liberals are wrong once again. Human beings are the ultimate resource and we can work out way out of scarcity.

The liberals will vigorously oppose this technology some way, some how. They will invent an imaginary boogeyman if they have to. Anything that results in abundance and prosperity has to be opposed at all costs because with prosperity comes independence - and they loath that concept.

6 posted on 03/18/2013 7:58:19 PM PDT by ElkGroveDan (My tagline is in the shop.)
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To: shove_it

Carbon is bad bad bad. Everyone who is listening has learned this. /s


7 posted on 03/18/2013 8:00:20 PM PDT by eartrumpet
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To: shove_it
The development could spare underdeveloped countries from having to build exotic, expensive pumping stations needed in plants that use a desalination process called reverse osmosis...

Not to mention Southern California!

8 posted on 03/18/2013 8:00:56 PM PDT by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both)
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To: shove_it

The planet can handle TEN TIMES the number of people that now live on it, if water supply issues were eliminated...which I think would be the case if only 1% of the energy now required can be used for desalinization.

Wikipedia shows the present cost at 50 cents per cubic meter (264 gallons), or about 0.2 cents per gallon. Decrease that price by 99% and the water is basically free (at least with regard to energy cost). Other costs still exist - capital and operations...so I don’t know what the bottom line will be.


9 posted on 03/18/2013 8:03:20 PM PDT by BobL (Look up "CSCOPE" if you want to see something really scary)
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To: ElkGroveDan

By desalinating water on any large scale, one necessarily increases the salinity of the remaining water left behind. This causes a disruption in the halene isobars, and changes the ambient temperature of the local oceanic body of water, thus displacing native species of fish, and even eliminating the habitat of various flora and fauna. Hence, mass desalization of ocean water both threatens wildlife, and causes global warming on a local scale.

(all of which is true - but, it is also insignificant).

(besides, who gives a rat’s patoot - I am thirsty.)


10 posted on 03/18/2013 8:05:08 PM PDT by patton (“Really? Have you tried chewing cloves?”)
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To: BenLurkin

And every place else with coastal salinity.
Really a bright spot on the horizon.


11 posted on 03/18/2013 8:07:42 PM PDT by theneanderthal
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To: BenLurkin
Not to mention Southern California!

If you would have lots of cheep water in Southern California, what would happen to all the high paid bureaucrats at LADWP and the politicians who get fat from them?

Those guys don't needs 'solutions.' They make big bucks from problems. You trying to rock the boat or something? ;~))

12 posted on 03/18/2013 8:09:46 PM PDT by Ditto
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; ColdOne; Convert from ECUSA; ...

Thanks shove_it.
a way to slash the amount of energy needed to remove salt from seawater
Cool, refoliate the Sahara (after forced relocation of the entire Muzzie population) and listen to the bitching as the Amazon turns into a desert.


13 posted on 03/18/2013 8:25:19 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Romney would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)
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To: patton
By desalinating water on any large scale, one necessarily increases the salinity of the remaining water left behind.

Only if you return the separated salt to the body of water instead of, say, purifying it and selling it on the grocery store spice aisle.

14 posted on 03/18/2013 8:56:49 PM PDT by Charles Martel (Endeavor to persevere...)
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To: shove_it
....graphene are so thin - just one atom in thickness...

Graphene's going to change the world...

15 posted on 03/18/2013 8:59:05 PM PDT by GOPJ (DHS HAS secured: 1.6 BILLION bullets - 2.700 tanks and 35,000 drones ...to use on American soil...)
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To: shove_it

Some of the comments on Yahoo are hysterical about this. What a waste of humainity


16 posted on 03/18/2013 9:08:24 PM PDT by Fai Mao (Genius at Large)
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To: GOPJ

It is amazing stuff

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphene


17 posted on 03/18/2013 9:22:53 PM PDT by Lurkina.n.Learnin (Obama is the Chicken Little of politics)
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To: patton

Oh come on, the chance of ever de-sal’ing enough water to cause any change in the oceans is pretty far fetched, wouldn’t you say?


18 posted on 03/18/2013 9:35:21 PM PDT by X-spurt (Republic of Texas, Come and Take It!)
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To: patton
"By desalinating water on any large scale, one necessarily increases the salinity of the remaining water left behind."

Assuming that the salt from the filtered water would be dumped back into the ocean? ;-)


19 posted on 03/18/2013 10:24:38 PM PDT by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of rotten politics smelled around the planet.)
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To: Charles Martel; familyop; X-spurt

Yes, yes, and yes, of course, you are correct.

The argument will still be made, however.


20 posted on 03/18/2013 10:35:10 PM PDT by patton (“Really? Have you tried chewing cloves?”)
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