Posted on 09/17/2023 3:53:24 AM PDT by FarCenter
The Jazlah plant in Jubail city applies the latest technological advances in a country that first turned to desalination more than a century ago, when Ottoman-era administrators enlisted filtration machines for hajj pilgrims menaced by drought and cholera.
Lacking lakes, rivers and regular rainfall, Saudi Arabia today relies instead on dozens of facilities that transform water from the Gulf and Red Sea into something potable, supplying cities and towns that otherwise would not survive.
But the kingdom's growing desalination needs –- fuelled by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's dreams of presiding over a global business and tourism hub –- risk clashing with its sustainability goals, including achieving net-zero emissions by 2060.
Projects like Jazlah, the first plant to integrate desalination with solar power on a large scale, are meant to ease that conflict: officials say the panels will help save around 60,000 tons of carbon emissions annually.
It is the type of innovation that must be scaled up fast, with Prince Mohammed targeting a population of 100 million people by 2040, up from 32.2 million today.
"Typically, the population grows, and then the quality of life of the population grows," necessitating more and more water, said CEO Marco Arcelli of ACWA Power, which runs Jazlah.
Using desalination to keep pace is a "do or die" challenge, said historian Michael Christopher Low at the University of Utah, who has studied the kingdom's struggle with water scarcity.
"This is existential for the Gulf states. So when anyone is sort of critical about what they're doing in terms of ecological consequences, I shake my head a bit," he said.
...
By 2010, Saudi desalination facilities were consuming 1.5 million barrels of oil per day, more than 15 percent of today's production.
(Excerpt) Read more at france24.com ...
“ But the kingdom’s growing desalination needs –- fuelled by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s dreams of presiding over a global business and tourism hub –- risk clashing with its sustainability goals, including achieving net-zero emissions by 2060.”
Is that the “heavy toll” referred to in the headline? Seems tolerable to me
It's a lot easier to store water than electricity. One would think that they store at least a month's worth of water (somewhere), and recycle as much as possible. For instance, treated waste water could be used for irrigation, and salt water used for toilets. They are never going to be Maine or New Foundland, but I do not see using photovoltaics as necessarily being a show stopper.
De-Salination links:
Project: Georgia Tech Included in Major Water Desalination Research Initiative
https://research.gatech.edu/georgia-tech-included-major-water-desalination-research-initiative
1- https://www.desalination.biz/tag/finland/
2- https://solarwatersolutions.fi/en/article/brand-new-desalination-unit-installed-on-finnish-archipelago/
3- https://www.blackridgeresearch.com/new-projects-near-me/desalination-plant-database/ongoing/finland
4- https://www.usgs.gov/special-topics/water-science-school/science/desalination
If I remember correctly, Finland is doing incinerate waste to provide energy for desalination as well.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0011916408002919
Kudos! Agreed.
It’s getting more evident every day that “sustainability” is unsustainable.
With the Ukraine war dragging on for years, the USA had time to assemble 500,000 robotic soldiers, and actually win the war. Robots are the solution to many problems, including who to enslave to service the national debt. The USA must become the leader in AI robots, and sell them to the world.
It's not widely known, but freshwater can be made easily by freezing ocean water near the South Pole, and stored there indefinitely for free. Freezing water naturally pushes the salt out. This would also cool the oceans, stop rising sea levels, and even stop Earth's spin from slowing. You're welcome.
The Israelis desalinate for about $500@acre foot. They send the water to their cities. Then they clean it up a bit and send it to their farms. When the price of desalination gets to about $300 another major agricultural revolution will occur. At that price all agriculture can become profitable exept for field crops. That means that all fruits vegetables and nuts can be profitable at about $300@acre foot.
With greenhouses desalinated water can be $1000@acre foot and still be profitable—but just barely. This is done in southern Spain where they have so many greenhouses —they can be seen from space.
There are a couple major developments that will drop the price of desalination to under $300@acre foot in the next 10 years...
The first is improved membranes for filtration. The second is cheaper energy. The third is the transfer of desalination concentrates from being part of the cost structure of desalination to being part of profit structure of desalination.
$500/acre-ft for seawater desalination!? What do the Israelis know that we don’t know?
Delivery of untreated water from Sacramento to Southern California costs more than $2,000/ac-ft. Part of the reason San Diego is building a massive program to recycle purified wastewater to its raw water supply.
Yeah. That’s right. The posiden plant in san diego costs about $2000@ acre foot.
Most plants throughout the world being developed today bring in desalinated water in the $1000 range. The leaders in desalination are israel and singapore. They bring in desalinated water for $500@acre foot.
How do they do it? First time is money. It took over 15 years for the posiden plant to be built. Everywhere else in the world the time is about three years. Second. California really discourage desalination by making environmental demands on the desalination plant that raises costs.
Those are big obvious things. There are more but they take a more detailed understanding than I have.
Someone proposed shipping icebergs from antarctica to Los Angeles to supply fresh water. New England used to have a thriving business in storing winter ice and selling it around the world, as far away as India. Iceboats packed with straw for insulation would use wind to sail to India with delicious New England ice.
I’m still looking for that “heavy toll” in the article that the headline references.
Scariest sentence in the article - “. . . with Prince Mohammed targeting a population of 100 million people by 2040, up from 32.2 million today.”
I like your Comment #28
“freshwater can be made easily by freezing ocean water near the South Pole, and stored there indefinitely for free. Freezing water naturally pushes the salt out.”
Or, two birds with one stone: COMMENT #24
Finland is doing incinerate WATER to provide energy for desalination as well.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0011916408002919
Sorry Comment #35 typo!
I like your Comment #28
“freshwater can be made easily by freezing ocean water near the South Pole, and stored there indefinitely for free. Freezing water naturally pushes the salt out.”
Or, two birds with one stone: COMMENT #24
Finland has a hi-tech process to incinerate waste to provide energy for desalination as well.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0011916408002919
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