The first thing I usually find when I have an idea is that someone else has already thought of it. I started researching this idea, and I swear I found it was already being done in different areas across the globe in small scales, but when I sat down to write this article, I couldn't find those sources. From what I could find, someone had proposed using salt water instead of fresh water in power plants on a forum for scientists, and the scientists shot him down saying the salts would cause too much corrosion. We can't figure out a cure for rust yet? Or that the salt water would be cold as it would be coming from the ocean and would have to be heated, where the fresh water was reused so it would be hotter and require less energy to boil. But, remember, we are creating energy and heat from the steam. That steam needs to be cooled and condensed to water; maybe that remaining heat could be used to heat the incoming salt water and help offset that energy cost?
I found a report from The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) from the 1960's where they talk about using the left over heat from nuclear power plants to boil salt water to create steam to turn turbines and create energy. They say any "condenser turbine," which, from what I could find all power plants that use steam as the driving force have, can be connected to a Desalination plant. They report that "a certain amount of water can be desalted in this way without greatly altering the original characteristics of the plant, and this water is obtained at the best possible price since the energy can be regarded as free." You don't hear that very often. I think they were talking about this.
The US Department of Interior released a report in 2008 called "Reclamation -- Managing Water in the West." In this report, they talk about "Cogeneration." This is a process where the waste heat from Power plants is used as an additional power source. This heat, which otherwise is just released into the atmosphere and lost, can be used to heat salt water, creating fresh water.
The report states "The lure of cogeneration is quite simply to try to use the heat from burning fuel for two purposes: first to turn turbines and make electricity, secondly to condense in a desalination plant and make water. Even with single-purpose power generation, the steam must be condensed and the heat dissipated to the environment, typically via cooling towers or condensers cooled by surface water. The attraction is then obvious: instead of throwing the heat away, utilize it in a linked process -- desalination."
Cogeneration is already being done at some power plants across the globe, but it could be done at a lot more. And at many of the plants that it is not being done, that heat is not only being wasted, but often just released into the environment. It still seems to me we could take it a step further, and actually use the salt water desalination process to create the steam to power the plants, and make even more fresh water. The salt isn't causing too much corrosion in the Cogeneration facilities for them to operate. And we would be saving fresh water that otherwise would have been used in the plant.
Most of us in the "developed" world do not think we have a shortage of fresh water, so making this big effort to change salt water to fresh water doesn't seem "cost-effective" for us at the moment -- but how about this?
Whether or not you believe in "global warming," most scientists will agree that the ocean levels are rising. Our glaciers are melting at alarming rates, and theories abound as to what these rising sea levels will do to our coastlines. A recent study by The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts our ice caps will be completely melted by 2050. There's that year again.
Maybe there is something we can do.
So, we have a shortage of fresh water, and a growing problem of too much salt water. Why not set up Desalination plants along our coasts, convert the additional "rising" salt water into fresh water, and fix two major problems at the same time?
And the plants don't have to be powered by Uranium, Coal, or Oil.
How bout this? Scientists have been working on new forms of "water" energy involving ocean waves. The actual movement of the water itself can be used to create energy. So, we could set up these Desalination Power plants along our coasts, and use the ocean waves to power them.
Scientists have also suggested setting up Wind Turbines on our coastlines to create energy.
Why not both?
There's also another form of Desalination called Reverse
Osmosis that involves using energy to push salt water through a membrane or
filter, clearing out all of the salts. A company in the
But wait, there's more!
Another thing we are quickly running out of on this planet is oil. What if we could find a new energy source to power our vehicles?
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