Article also mentions another firm that has a different approach to the traditional desalination plants brine issue:
Oneka's floating desalination machines - buoys anchored to the seabed - use a membrane system that is solely powered by the movement of the waves.
The buoys absorb energy from passing waves, and covert it into mechanical pumping forces that draw in seawater and push around a quarter of it through the desalination system. The fresh, drinking water is then pumped to land through pipelines, again only using the power provided by the waves.
"The tech uses no electricity," says Ms Hunt. "It is 100% mechanically driven."
The units require just one metre high waves to work, and the firm hopes that it will start to sell them commercially next year. They come in three sizes, the largest of which is 8m long by 5m wide, and can produce up to 49,000 litres (13,000 US gallons) of drinking water per day.
Article also mentions another firm that has a different approach to the traditional desalination plants brine issue:
In the Netherlands, Dutch firm Desolenator has a different approach to using renewable energy to power desalination - it uses solar panels.
Desolenator also does not release any brine back into the sea. Instead it collects all the salt for commercial use.
"Brine has long been a headache in desalination," says Lauren Beck, the firm's head of projects. "Essentially it's a waste product. We crystallise the brine to produce high value salt.
"And because we don't use any harmful chemicals this is a very pure, high quality salt that can we sold for any kind of industrial use. This is really focusing on the circular economy approach."
There is another development out of MIT that doesn't use any electricity at all, and could be cheaper than tap water. We had a discussion on it a few days ago as well. Edit: We should also move...
Saw that, it's a solid looking concept and we'll need all the solutions we can get. Had just come across this story the other day as it's a working model and not just a lab prototype. And yes,...
Saw that, it's a solid looking concept and we'll need all the solutions we can get. Had just come across this story the other day as it's a working model and not just a lab prototype.
And yes, this should be in ~enviro, forgot about the group when I posted.
I wish them luck but i'm extremely skeptical. There's a lot of "what if we harnessed the tides/waves" projects that get proposed over the years and I don't think i've ever seen 1 succeed. The...
I wish them luck but i'm extremely skeptical. There's a lot of "what if we harnessed the tides/waves" projects that get proposed over the years and I don't think i've ever seen 1 succeed. The ocean is a miserable environment for just about anything.
That said, this does have very few mechanical parts in theory (since the key action is done through a membrane), but i'm still wondering what the cost is going to be to send ships out and replace parts on the pumps/more complicated sections every X months when it gets eaten away.
I also feel like their estimations are very optimistic, but that's just a gut feeling based on not much more than "these fluff pieces are ALWAYS insanely optimistic and 13,000 gallons a day seems like a lot"
I usually agree with this type of stance. But clean water is quickly becoming an issue in many parts of the world, so I'm all for trying anything to see what sticks.
I usually agree with this type of stance. But clean water is quickly becoming an issue in many parts of the world, so I'm all for trying anything to see what sticks.
Article also mentions another firm that has a different approach to the traditional desalination plants brine issue:
There is another development out of MIT that doesn't use any electricity at all, and could be cheaper than tap water. We had a discussion on it a few days ago as well.
Edit: We should also move this to ~enviro? Most of the desal posts are.
Saw that, it's a solid looking concept and we'll need all the solutions we can get. Had just come across this story the other day as it's a working model and not just a lab prototype.
And yes, this should be in ~enviro, forgot about the group when I posted.
@mycketforvirrad if you please....
Sorted!
Thanks!
I wish them luck but i'm extremely skeptical. There's a lot of "what if we harnessed the tides/waves" projects that get proposed over the years and I don't think i've ever seen 1 succeed. The ocean is a miserable environment for just about anything.
That said, this does have very few mechanical parts in theory (since the key action is done through a membrane), but i'm still wondering what the cost is going to be to send ships out and replace parts on the pumps/more complicated sections every X months when it gets eaten away.
I also feel like their estimations are very optimistic, but that's just a gut feeling based on not much more than "these fluff pieces are ALWAYS insanely optimistic and 13,000 gallons a day seems like a lot"
I hear you, but 50 failures and a success is a success. I'm excited that one of these could work out.
I usually agree with this type of stance. But clean water is quickly becoming an issue in many parts of the world, so I'm all for trying anything to see what sticks.