Comment on For states on the coast with excess solar energy why don't they invest in water desalination and pump that water back upstream?

HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

• Death_Equity@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  We are talking about humanity here, we will pump the brine into tapped out oil and gas holes and end up salting the aquifers.

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• Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Brine can be transported to different parts of the ocean? It’s a massive bodie of water. Widespread adoption would have to be massive as well to see significant increases in molar concentration.

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  • Baguette@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Salinity doesn’t really work like that. You can’t just dump a bunch of brine and expect it to just mix with the rest of the seawater. A lot of that depends on temperature, currents, etc. You might just end up forming a brine lake in the ocean if the brine just so happens to end up at the bottom without ever mixing. Not to mention brine isn’t always just concentrated salt and water. It can include byproducts from desalination.

    Reference:

    scientificamerican.com/…/slaking-the-worlds-thirs…

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    • Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      People have made the argument for dumping nuclear waste in the ocean. I believe adding brine to existing brine resivours won’t be too much of a hassle.

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      • Baguette@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Are there any brine reservoir in the ocean? That doesn’t seem to be a thing. It either mixes properly with the ocean if proper mechanisms are set or it just ends up sinking to the bottom of the ocean and killing everything there.

        There’s storage inland, but that also has its own problems.

        Nuclear waste in the ocean follows a similar idea (although larger in scope). You can’t just dump it and be done. You have to create a plan to slowly release it (over decades) to (hopefully) not adversely affect life

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    • howrar@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Could you process it further and package it up to sell as salt? Or is this not the same thing as table salt?

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      • Baguette@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Depends on the desalination method. If there’s no added chemicals, or if they removed them prior, I’d assume it’s feasible. After all, ancient times used to just evaporate seawater and get salt from it.

        It might just be an economic problem. Questions such as where are you going to get land for creating huge evaporation pools, is it worth the yield of table salt, etc.

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  • HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    where exactly? what do you want to kill and pollute? what area deserves it?

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