Seawater is our source for survival.
Seawater makes up about 96.5% of all the water on Earth. This vast amount of water is found in our oceans and seas, making it the most abundant source of water on the planet. The remaining 3.5% consists of freshwater found in glaciers, ice caps, groundwater, lakes, rivers, and the atmosphere.
Humidity plays a crucial role in weather patterns and can affect everything from how comfortable we feel to how plants grow; the air does contain water in the form of water vapor originates from the sea through a process called evaporation. When the sun heats up the surface of the ocean, water molecules gain enough energy to transform into vapor and rise into the atmosphere.
Drinking water from the Air.
Atmospheric Water Generation (AWG) is an innovative technology that extracts potable water from the humidity in the air. This process involves several methods, such as cooling the air to condense water vapor, using desiccants to absorb moisture, or employing membranes that only allow water vapor to pass through. AWG systems can be particularly useful in areas where access to clean water is limited or during emergencies when traditional water sources are compromised.
SkyH2O is a company that is scaling AWG technology to produce up to 200,000 liters of water daily at their stations.
There will be many more companies that will follow the concept of AWG in the future.
Water-supply from seawater.
Desalinated seawater is water that has been purified to remove salts and other impurities, making it suitable for drinking and other uses. This process is particularly important in regions where freshwater resources are scarce. There are several methods for desalinating seawater, including:
Reverse Osmosis: This is the most common method, where seawater is forced through a semi-permeable membrane that filters out salts and impurities.
Distillation: This involves heating seawater to create steam, which is then condensed back into liquid form, leaving the salt behind.
Electrodialysis: This method uses electrical currents to separate salts from the water.
Desalination plants are becoming increasingly important in providing a reliable source of freshwater, especially in arid regions and areas with limited access to natural freshwater sources.
Desalination plants from seawater can in many cases be an expensive investment, as well as finding a suitable location on the coast.
Offshore Plants.
A new model of offshore desalination plants has proven to be a faster solution in case of water shortage, which at the same time means a lower investment. These facilities will be manufactured as floating vessels, anchored far from the coast without taking up precious land.
A Norwegian company with experience in the offshore industry, FOD, can offer an installation within a 2-year period, which in the case of an onshore facility takes over 5 years to build with a significantly higher investment. A FOD offshore unit has production of 75,000 -100,000 m3/day of fresh water.
A number of other projects with offshore plants are at the experimental stage, although with less capacity.
Land based desalination plants.
A medium capacity on a land base plant is between 10,000 and 250,000 m³/day. The space required for land-based desalination plants varies depending on the technology used, energy sources, and environmental impact considerations.
One example of a large Plant that was built in southern Australia and covers 38 ha of land, producing 300,000m3 / day. In this case, a large part has been built on wetlands, which were not built on. In other cases, precious coastal land must be used.
Environmental Impact: Modern desalination plants aim to minimize environmental impact by using energy-efficient technologies and reducing waste byproducts. For example, Alfa Laval’s desalination solutions use energy from waste process heat and other sources to generate large volumes of high-purity freshwater economically and sustainably.
Energy needed.
Desalination does NOT consume a lot of energy. The energy consumption of a desalination plant is currently around 3 kWh/m3, i.e. 0.003 kW is needed to produce one liter of fresh water. The cost of producing desalinated water from the sea is between €0.5 and €1.0 per cubic meter (1,000 liters).
Renewable energy can play an important role in desalination. Renewable technologies that are suited to desalination include solar thermal, solar photovoltaics (PV), wind, and geothermal energy.
Summary.
There is always access to underground water reservoirs, but unfortunately so much of this natural reserve has already been extracted and in the worst case, it could put the Earth’s balance at risk in terms of rotation. This discussion has taken place in world health organizations, but unfortunately without results.
As for desalination plants, the investments are quite large, but overall, purified seawater will be cheaper than the current supply of drinking water.
AWG, the extraction of water from the air, also becomes cheaper after investments earn interest.
Thanks for reading my blog.
#Windmush / #Curt
Water is a need for survival, but at the same time it can create chaos! – Curt Bergsten/Windmush