Really cool as always, Tomas. I work in the engineering part of the field. Seeing a global economic analysis was very insightful. Costs are -based on both your analysis and my experience - not the problem. However, brine discharge it. Technologies to recover low- and high- value products are available, but both finding buyers and transpo…
Really cool as always, Tomas. I work in the engineering part of the field. Seeing a global economic analysis was very insightful. Costs are -based on both your analysis and my experience - not the problem. However, brine discharge it. Technologies to recover low- and high- value products are available, but both finding buyers and transporting the goods are show-stoppers. They manage more or less in the industrialized areas of the Middle East, but anywhere else it remains impossible. Discharging the brine directly into the ocean is absolutely nuts - because of a) the environmental consequences and b) you miss on a lot of water recovery from further concentrating it if you try to obtain the by-products. Salud!
I started my research broadly aligned with this. Then I looked into the actual environmental concerns of dumping it in the sea and I don’t see it as a problem anymore. Why do you?
There is just a small amount of non-conclusive studies about the environmental impact it has. The few ones that look into the 'long-term' (it is still too early to really call it long-term) saw enourmeous patches of a white, salt-based precipitate on the surroundings of the dumping area. I can only imagine those patches growing larger and killing everything around. As far as I understand, we have not been able to quantify the environmental impact it has, but I'd say it does not look good.
Really cool as always, Tomas. I work in the engineering part of the field. Seeing a global economic analysis was very insightful. Costs are -based on both your analysis and my experience - not the problem. However, brine discharge it. Technologies to recover low- and high- value products are available, but both finding buyers and transporting the goods are show-stoppers. They manage more or less in the industrialized areas of the Middle East, but anywhere else it remains impossible. Discharging the brine directly into the ocean is absolutely nuts - because of a) the environmental consequences and b) you miss on a lot of water recovery from further concentrating it if you try to obtain the by-products. Salud!
PS. Happy to talk more about it if you want!
Thanks!
I started my research broadly aligned with this. Then I looked into the actual environmental concerns of dumping it in the sea and I don’t see it as a problem anymore. Why do you?
There is just a small amount of non-conclusive studies about the environmental impact it has. The few ones that look into the 'long-term' (it is still too early to really call it long-term) saw enourmeous patches of a white, salt-based precipitate on the surroundings of the dumping area. I can only imagine those patches growing larger and killing everything around. As far as I understand, we have not been able to quantify the environmental impact it has, but I'd say it does not look good.
Yes, patches of a few tens of square meters! Barely anything! Very local!