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comment by rob05c
rob05c  ·  3442 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Why can't we manufacture water?

The article doesn't even mention desalinisation, except as a citation.

Desalinisation is exactly how we 'manufacture water.' It's far more reliable and less environmentally dubious than extracting it out of the air.

Yes, it takes a lot of power. So pair it with a safe, passively cooled, low-waste nuclear reactor. Which reduces the technical problem to a social one.





user-inactivated  ·  3442 days ago  ·  link  ·  

You still have to do with the salt. What solutions have you seen with that one?

rob05c  ·  3442 days ago  ·  link  ·  

The most common methods are saltcrete mixed into road asphalt, and simply putting the brine back into the ocean.

Saltcrete asphalt immobilises the brine, which can be environmentally toxic in high concentrations. The quantity of brine released into the ocean increases the overall ocean salinity insignificantly. Although some studies have suggested that under certain conditions, brine can disperse slowly, and form plumes which sink to the bottom.

I would generally support pipelines from the coast, over non-coastal desalinisation facilities. I'd also certainly support studies into brine dispersal. But I tend to think brine disposal is one of the easier commercial-industrial waste problems.

user-inactivated  ·  3442 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Makes sense. I always heard that the salt will essentially poison the sea, and a little bit at a time is a lot when scaled up. I would like to see what really happens.

doommaggot  ·  3442 days ago  ·  link  ·  

The water taken out will likely get used pretty quickly and end up back in the ocean along with the salt, so this shouldn't be an issue.

satiricon  ·  3442 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Throw it in the sea?

briandmyers  ·  3442 days ago  ·  link  ·  

You don't even need nuclear. Solar (using mirrors or fresnel-lens concentrators) would do the trick; free, easy, safe as houses.