Seawater desalination

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Tyrannical
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Re: Seawater desalination

Post by Tyrannical » Sat Aug 26, 2017 11:06 am

rainbow wrote:Drivel.
Dribble
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Hermit
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Re: Seawater desalination

Post by Hermit » Sat Aug 26, 2017 11:26 am

Tyrannical wrote:Desalination is pointless outside of cities, because you'll never be able to desalinate cheaply enough to grow food too. These water poor overpopulated regions are just setting themselves up for a massive future famine.
Not necessarily. The local steelworks up the road from where I live desalinates water needed for its blast furnaces. The desalinated water gets used by nearby farmers and the saline sludge goes to the adjacent salt works.
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Re: Seawater desalination

Post by mistermack » Sat Aug 26, 2017 11:42 am

Tyrannical wrote:Desalination is pointless outside of cities, because you'll never be able to desalinate cheaply enough to grow food too. These water poor overpopulated regions are just setting themselves up for a massive future famine.
There are methods of desalination that show promise, using the sun as the energy input. If you can develop that, then you could grow food without high cost electricity.
One example is the salt water greenhouse. Another is mangrove cultivation being done in Ethiopia. It's not a big money spinner at the moment, but it's a bit premature to say "never".
There is cheap energy pouring down every day. You just need a way to use it to desalinate directly, rather than via electricity generation.

Then of course, if they make a success of fusion power generation, then with cheap electricity available, desalination would be really viable for agriculture. That's a big if, and thirty odd years away. But it might well happen.
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Tyrannical
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Re: Seawater desalination

Post by Tyrannical » Sat Aug 26, 2017 11:58 am

mistermack wrote:
Tyrannical wrote:Desalination is pointless outside of cities, because you'll never be able to desalinate cheaply enough to grow food too. These water poor overpopulated regions are just setting themselves up for a massive future famine.
There are methods of desalination that show promise, using the sun as the energy input. If you can develop that, then you could grow food without high cost electricity.
One example is the salt water greenhouse. Another is mangrove cultivation being done in Ethiopia. It's not a big money spinner at the moment, but it's a bit premature to say "never".
There is cheap energy pouring down every day. You just need a way to use it to desalinate directly, rather than via electricity generation.

Then of course, if they make a success of fusion power generation, then with cheap electricity available, desalination would be really viable for agriculture. That's a big if, and thirty odd years away. But it might well happen.
The desert farm / desalination projects are all built around luxury and cash crops such as tomatoes, not food crops. Its simply too expensive to be used in poor areas.
A rational skeptic should be able to discuss and debate anything, no matter how much they may personally disagree with that point of view. Discussing a subject is not agreeing with it, but understanding it.

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Re: Seawater desalination

Post by rainbow » Sat Aug 26, 2017 12:04 pm

Tyrannical wrote:Its simply too expensive to be used in poor areas.
No. It isn't.
I call bullshit - Alfred E Einstein
BArF−4

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Tyrannical
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Re: Seawater desalination

Post by Tyrannical » Sat Aug 26, 2017 12:10 pm

rainbow wrote:
Tyrannical wrote:Its simply too expensive to be used in poor areas.
No. It isn't.
Including growing agricultural food crops?
A rational skeptic should be able to discuss and debate anything, no matter how much they may personally disagree with that point of view. Discussing a subject is not agreeing with it, but understanding it.

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Re: Seawater desalination

Post by rainbow » Sat Aug 26, 2017 12:21 pm

I call bullshit - Alfred E Einstein
BArF−4

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