Eros; Don't make assumptions as to where I have been, especially since it has nothing to do with your premise. Yes there are many salt ponds all over the world and they are dead to organic life. When those salt areas dry out the salt begins to travel with the wind, contaminating vast areas of arable land. Failing to recognize that fact is a major flaw in you premise. The disposal of the toxic bi-product MUST be factored into the cost equation to determine viability. You also need to realize that the world is not short of salt and salt mines. They are in abundance, and employ a lot of people. Just because you propose hundreds more of these stockpiles of salt and other contaminants appearing along the coasts, does not mean there will be a use for it at any price or even free. You also don’t seem to realize that ocean water IS NOT PURE and CLEAN! It is contaminated with pollution, from oil spills, chemical dumps, discarded garbage containing medical waste, the human and chemical waste effluent discharged by sewage pipes and cruise ships as well as the dead sea life and their waste products. Plus the salt itself in high concentrations IS TOXIC to organic life, plant and animal. NOTHING lives on those salt flats or in the Dead sea, the Aral Sea or the now greatly diminished Lake Urmia in Iran and any other salt sea in the world. Therefore to say there is no toxic waste...is completely ridiculous. I have no doubt your concept is far cheaper, but will it supply the volume of water required….that’s the big question and at what cost for the infrastructure as it will occupy many times the foot print of conventional desalination technologies in order to derive a similar volume of production due to the very slow natural process! You asked for a fair judgement of your proposal, I am giving it to you, and you NEED to address the points I brought up, which you haven’t. This is not stubbornness (on my part) it is a fair and reasonable analysis of your claims. If one does not think of all the problems that need to be overcome, you will simply FAIL before you can even start. No one is going to put one dollar into a project where someone has not considered how or if the technology will address the actual need it is intended for, and the future problems it will encounter. 1: The scale of the technology and its potential daily output considering that evaporation at room temperature is very very slow.... (How many units of what scale would it take to produce 1,000,000 m3 per day, and keep in mind, you only have part of the day to evaporate water and none on cold days at all? 2: The storage or disposal of the toxic bi-product. The Dead sea is not just mined for salt, it is a cocktail of minerals all naturally formed from the sedimentary layers beneath the water goes down a great distance. The ocean however is not clean, it is contaminated with waste and that contamination is left behind during evaporation. 3: What is the foot print required to store the salt, and how will it be eventually disposed of and how will you keep it from blowing onto arable agricultural land, rendering it useless? 4: How do you address the inability of your concept to EVER produce enough fresh water to supply agriculture in hot climates, as I pointed out the requirement in comparison to potential output of RTE technology. (You need much higher volumes during the growing season than at other times, how does your concept address those requirements?) Yes the great water cycle is a marvel of creation and the only reason there is life on land on this planet. However postulating that a mechanical device can duplicate the supply derived from rainfall is another matter altogether. If you feel that the Lord has given you this concept, then please enquire of him to provide the answers to these questions….that’s how an evaluation works…. You postulate the concept, questions are raised and you address the questions of concern to remove all doubt of its validity so, please elaborate! It appears to me that you have come up with what you think is a simple solution that will easily supply the world with fresh water, without actually looking at the demand side of the picture. I’m no fan of Reverse Osmosis desalination, it’s costly, energy intensive and contaminates coastal waters with the toxic bi-product, killing coral reefs and marine life and can never produce enough for agricultural use. But your concept could not even come close to providing the volume of desalinated water that current desalination does, and you still have problems with waste disposal. Therefore ridiculing current methods, calling them meaningless is hubris in the extreme. Meet the challenge….answer the questions in a reasonable manner, and be prepared for further questions if your answers appear to lack credibility.
Published by Mervyn Byron
Eros; Don't make assumptions as to where I have been, especially since it has nothing to do with your premise. Yes there are many salt ponds all over the world and they are dead to organic life. When those salt areas dry out the salt begins to travel with the wind, contaminating vast areas of arable land.
Failing to recognize that fact is a major flaw in you premise. The disposal of the toxic bi-product MUST be factored into the cost equation to determine viability. You also need to realize that the world is not short of salt and salt mines. They are in abundance, and employ a lot of people. Just because you propose hundreds more of these stockpiles of salt and other contaminants appearing along the coasts, does not mean there will be a use for it at any price or even free.
You also don’t seem to realize that ocean water IS NOT PURE and CLEAN! It is contaminated with pollution, from oil spills, chemical dumps, discarded garbage containing medical waste, the human and chemical waste effluent discharged by sewage pipes and cruise ships as well as the dead sea life and their waste products. Plus the salt itself in high concentrations IS TOXIC to organic life, plant and animal. NOTHING lives on those salt flats or in the Dead sea, the Aral Sea or the now greatly diminished Lake Urmia in Iran and any other salt sea in the world. Therefore to say there is no toxic waste...is completely ridiculous.
I have no doubt your concept is far cheaper, but will it supply the volume of water required….that’s the big question and at what cost for the infrastructure as it will occupy many times the foot print of conventional desalination technologies in order to derive a similar volume of production due to the very slow natural process!
You asked for a fair judgement of your proposal, I am giving it to you, and you NEED to address the points I brought up, which you haven’t. This is not stubbornness (on my part) it is a fair and reasonable analysis of your claims. If one does not think of all the problems that need to be overcome, you will simply FAIL before you can even start. No one is going to put one dollar into a project where someone has not considered how or if the technology will address the actual need it is intended for, and the future problems it will encounter.
1: The scale of the technology and its potential daily output considering that evaporation at room temperature is very very slow.... (How many units of what scale would it take to produce 1,000,000 m3 per day, and keep in mind, you only have part of the day to evaporate water and none on cold days at all?
2: The storage or disposal of the toxic bi-product. The Dead sea is not just mined for salt, it is a cocktail of minerals all naturally formed from the sedimentary layers beneath the water goes down a great distance. The ocean however is not clean, it is contaminated with waste and that contamination is left behind during evaporation.
3: What is the foot print required to store the salt, and how will it be eventually disposed of and how will you keep it from blowing onto arable agricultural land, rendering it useless?
4: How do you address the inability of your concept to EVER produce enough fresh water to supply agriculture in hot climates, as I pointed out the requirement in comparison to potential output of RTE technology. (You need much higher volumes during the growing season than at other times, how does your concept address those requirements?)
Yes the great water cycle is a marvel of creation and the only reason there is life on land on this planet. However postulating that a mechanical device can duplicate the supply derived from rainfall is another matter altogether.
If you feel that the Lord has given you this concept, then please enquire of him to provide the answers to these questions….that’s how an evaluation works…. You postulate the concept, questions are raised and you address the questions of concern to remove all doubt of its validity so, please elaborate!
It appears to me that you have come up with what you think is a simple solution that will easily supply the world with fresh water, without actually looking at the demand side of the picture. I’m no fan of Reverse Osmosis desalination, it’s costly, energy intensive and contaminates coastal waters with the toxic bi-product, killing coral reefs and marine life and can never produce enough for agricultural use. But your concept could not even come close to providing the volume of desalinated water that current desalination does, and you still have problems with waste disposal. Therefore ridiculing current methods, calling them meaningless is hubris in the extreme.
Meet the challenge….answer the questions in a reasonable manner, and be prepared for further questions if your answers appear to lack credibility.