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thatawesomedrunkguy t1_j229w3m wrote

Reply to comment by Techutante in UIUC Researchers propose a new way to get fresh water from seawater, without the disadvantages of traditional desalination. They say that a vertical “capture surface” that is 210 m wide and 100 m tall, could extract enough vapor floating above warm oceans to supply 500,000 people with freshwater by lughnasadh

The problem is though, its cheaper for salt consumers to buy mined salt than from desalination plants. To concentrate seawater enough to create a viable salt product from the brine would take 4-5x more energy than simply desalinating for potable water use. That is on top of the 2-3x more capital equipment you'll need for this process. It doesn't make it economically feasible to do so (at this time). There's promising technology that's being researched and piloted, but until there is that gap is filled, then desal plants are going to keep dumping concentrate back from where they got their water.

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Techutante t1_j22k4ty wrote

I think they just pump it in a big tank or open field and let it evaporate. Bulldoze it later.

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thatawesomedrunkguy t1_j22s905 wrote

Most desal plants are producing in the tens of millions of gallons per day range. In order to get a proper evaporation, you're going to need a whole lot of surface area. Just not practical.

Plus, not as simple as concentrating evaporating seawater to get salt. You gotta separate your other type of salts that will form once the brine saturates.

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Techutante t1_j22sq04 wrote

They apparently mine brine for various minerals and trace metals, I was just reading. Rare earth elements and whatnot.

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