Difference between revisions of "Talk:Fundamental resources/Water"
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*http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_12/b4220041560310.htm - Robert McGinnis claims to have developed a method of desalination called 'forward osmosis' that uses 10% the energy of reverse osmosis. He "plans to start taking orders in late 2011". Promising if true. [http://www.yale.edu/env/elimelech/Research_Page/desalination/desalination_presentation3.pdf Here] is a presentation from him at Yale where it says (page 18) that forward osmosis uses 0.24 kWh/m<sup>3</sup> | *http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_12/b4220041560310.htm - Robert McGinnis claims to have developed a method of desalination called 'forward osmosis' that uses 10% the energy of reverse osmosis. He "plans to start taking orders in late 2011". Promising if true. [http://www.yale.edu/env/elimelech/Research_Page/desalination/desalination_presentation3.pdf Here] is a presentation from him at Yale where it says (page 18) that forward osmosis uses 0.24 kWh/m<sup>3</sup> | ||
*http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960852410010114 - Recent trial-run of a microbial desalination cell. It successfully ran for 4 months, removing 99% of salt from water and constantly generating electricity. | *http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960852410010114 - Recent trial-run of a microbial desalination cell. It successfully ran for 4 months, removing 99% of salt from water and constantly generating electricity. | ||
| − | *[http://www.nwc.gov.au/resources/documents/Waterlines_-_Trends_in_Desalination_-_REPLACE_%282%29.pdf Detailed UNESCO report on desalination technologies present and future]. Good summary of the technologies on page 35 of the pdf. | + | *[http://www.nwc.gov.au/resources/documents/Waterlines_-_Trends_in_Desalination_-_REPLACE_%282%29.pdf Detailed UNESCO report on desalination technologies present and future]. Good summary of the technologies on page 35 of the pdf. Page 10 says, "The research is focused on reducing the energy requirements for seawater desalination from the current benchmark of 3.5 kWh/m3 to the theoretical minimum of 0.8 kWh/m3". Existing plants have power consumption as low as 1.25kWh/m3 (p. 17) |
| + | **They raise an interesting point on page 43 that synthetic biology may create cheap membranes; plant tissues have channels that can separate ions from water. | ||
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Revision as of 23:37, 20 August 2011
Desalination energy analysis
- http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_12/b4220041560310.htm - Robert McGinnis claims to have developed a method of desalination called 'forward osmosis' that uses 10% the energy of reverse osmosis. He "plans to start taking orders in late 2011". Promising if true. Here is a presentation from him at Yale where it says (page 18) that forward osmosis uses 0.24 kWh/m3
- http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960852410010114 - Recent trial-run of a microbial desalination cell. It successfully ran for 4 months, removing 99% of salt from water and constantly generating electricity.
- Detailed UNESCO report on desalination technologies present and future. Good summary of the technologies on page 35 of the pdf. Page 10 says, "The research is focused on reducing the energy requirements for seawater desalination from the current benchmark of 3.5 kWh/m3 to the theoretical minimum of 0.8 kWh/m3". Existing plants have power consumption as low as 1.25kWh/m3 (p. 17)
- They raise an interesting point on page 43 that synthetic biology may create cheap membranes; plant tissues have channels that can separate ions from water.
There's a good blog post here that does quantitative analysis of world energy requirements for desalination with the formula -
Population * water consumption per capita * energy needed for desalination * fraction of water that comes from desalinationIt's difficult to see any scenario where it will require more than half a terawatt. For example -
20 billion * 0.2m3 /person/day * 2.2kWh/m3 * 0.5 = 8.8 billion kWh per day = 0.37 terawatts.More realistic is-
10 billion * 0.15m3 /person/day * 2kWh/m3 * 0.1 = 300 million kWh per day = 0.125 terawatts.
The second term can be minimized with greywater and good system design (especially in field of the agronomics), the fourth term with rainwater harvesting. The third can and will be minimized with improving desalination technology. The blog post says 5kWh/m3 (4kcal/l) is needed for reverse osmosis. A blog comment quotes a reports saying that 2.2kWh/m3 (1.76kcal/l) has been achieved.
As with photovoltaics, there are several potential breakthrough technologies on the horizon promising to make desalination much more energy-efficient. If just one of them pays off, it is very easy to see how unlimited fresh water can be supplied. If we consider a scenario for, say, 2020, we must assume that water can be desalinated with 2kcal/l or less if we are to be realistic. Microbial desalination or forward osmosis would solve the problem at a stroke. The science behind microbial desalination cells seems solid and there is a very strong possibility that desalination will become an energy source rather than an energy drain.
