California is sucking water from oceans in the millions. Desalination is the process that this water will be used for. Desalination is used to provide clean drinking-water in areas where the population density is higher than elsewhere in the world. Desalination may be an effective solution to a global problem, such as the lack clean drinking waters. But the process also has some problems. Before desalination is used to its full potential, these problems must be addressed.
The process of desalination involves converting salt water to drinking water. It is particularly useful in areas with high population density and limited water resources. The reason is that desalination can take millions of tons of salty water from the sea and then use different methods, depending on what type of plant it is, to produce hundreds to millions gallons or clean drinking. How much water comes out of a desalination process depends on the type of plant. Humans like to use new technologies, so desalination plants have become a popular choice. Water shortages will affect humans by 2090 if they continue using water as we do. Around the world, desalination plants have been built in Saudi Arabia, Spain and Australia. Because of their dense population, they require more water. Desalination is a process that must change if we do not want to face another crisis. It’s important to protect the environment. People cannot survive without it. The final outcome will be the death of all animals and plants, which will make it impossible for humans to survive. This is the extreme result, and we can avoid it if someone decides to take action and stop harming our environment. How can humans stop harming our environment? It’s not a difficult question to answer. But you must do it step by step. Desalination is a good first step, as it converts seawater to drinkable water. It’s a good idea to fix what can save thousands in places like Saudi Arabia or Africa. The desalination facilities only require simple repairs, but they would be useless if the plants were not repaired. (Handman, par 4) Instead of fixing these easy fixes to save the environment, why not move on to other problems?
Why not help to save the environment for all of us? Desalination was controversial because of several factors. Desalination was controversial in California because of a project that was implemented to ensure the safety of sea life. People protest desalination water plants to protect the environment.
Desalination also has a negative impact on the environment, due to its production of brine.
Start with the first issue that isn’t as serious as others. Brine, or sodium chloride mixed with water, is called brine. This water, which is mostly salt, has been referred to as Katz 609. This water can be dangerous to animals and humans. Humans and animals can come into contact, but the only way it becomes lethal is if you eat or drink it. Animals may not be aware of the dangers associated with eating or drinking something found in a dump, while humans are. It is important to remove the brine in a safe manner because animals are essential to human survival. They are dying off due to the fact that they get into the brine if it is not properly removed. The brine cannot be dumped in the ocean as it would kill sea life. However, it cannot be dumped anywhere that humans or other animals could easily access it. Owners of desalination plant usually dump the brine produced by reverse osmosis into landfills or other places where animals and humans can easily access it. It’s a huge problem. This is a big problem. Some bacteria is actually needed by humans. Some bacteria are bad. Some bacteria is bad. The bacteria needed for the immune system and to fight bad bacteria are not as plentiful when the bacteria in the water is removed. This is very dangerous for humans.
The desalination process and plants are the cause of the crisis mentioned previously. The desalination methods used at various desalination sites vary, but they all use reverse osmosis. This process uses a lot of energy. This technology uses a semipermeable osmosis membrane. This membrane is used to remove large particles that are in the water. The water will then be safe to consume. In reverse osmosis a pressure is applied to overcome the osmotic, a coligative property which is driven by chemical potency, a thermal parameter. It is a very energy-intensive process that can lead to very serious problems such as the formation of brine. This leads to the question of where you can store this brine. It may seem strange to fight water using water, but it is absurd to use so much energy. We cannot afford that amount of energy. The world will soon be green. To make this happen, we must stop doing those things that cause the world to become black and turn into a huge landfill. Desalination could be done differently, which would make a difference.
Desalination can be done in many ways. One of them is by using heat. Diesel generators can be used to heat water, but tend to fail at around 30-40%. The generator will be able to work at full capacity to provide heat and energy to finish the desalination process. This type of desalination uses five time more oil and twice as many energy than reverse-osmosis. This oil is also used to power the generators, which perform the desalination. The process produces twice as many brines as reverse osmosis, but it uses the same amount of energy and produces twice as much salt as heat-powered desalination. The seawater is cooled using a vacuum, but first they must boil it. After cooling down, the water will be pumped in coils and condensed. This process produces clean drinking-water. This process can also be very wasteful because, if an ocean desalination unit were to extract a thousand gallons, they’d only receive one-third of that amount as clean water. (Pernia & Diaz 4)
The problem of brine in desalination plants is not limited to the amount of energy used. Also, they have issues with retrieving water. Others use a huge vacuum pipe, which can kill marine life. Sea life may get trapped in the pipe. The animal is then sucked dry. (Hui Liu & Song 2) Poseidon desalination in California came up a solution that involved putting a net over the pipes. Californians were not yet convinced that the mesh net would help marine life. They believed that sealife would still find their way into the huge vacuum tube. Poseidon Project concluded that although the mesh holes were too small to allow sea life through, the plant was still affected because starfish or other creatures would attach on the net. The plant was unable to get the water it needed to run. (Nazar)
Other desalination systems use different methods of retrieving the water. One example is a pipe positioned in the sea that cannot be sucked in. Sea life is still killed by this process because it can simply swim into the pipe. The Poseidon Project process uses more energy, but this process is less intensive because it does not require vacuum suction. The waves of an ocean are simply allowed to pass through the pipe. The desalination plants also lose out because they are not getting the water needed as quickly. This method of water retrieval can provide twice as much water to desalination plants in just a few hours.
Desalination facilities use excessive amounts of oil. Desalination plants use oil for many things. Oil is used for a number of things in desalination plants. The plant uses oil. The oil is used for the pumping system and the building itself. The oil that is used by desalination plants will reduce the amount of oil humans need to spend on other important items like cars and houses. Owners of desalination plants will claim that without oil, they cannot power the entire building. This statement is false because there are new technologies that are more environmentally friendly than oil.
Wind power is the first solution and technology to a problem with desalination plant. The wind turbines are placed outside the desalination plant and will provide power to the plants. It would be very useful in Saudi Arabia, where there are often dust storms caused by sand being blown about in strong winds. Solar energy is another technology. The building is fitted with solar plates that generate electricity to power the desalination. The process is applicable almost anywhere, as the sun shines every day. Solar and wind energy can be costly. As solar and other renewable energies become more prevalent, prices will drop. (Young Jong Yu 391) If the desalination plant would choose the more expensive option, it could eliminate a great deal of the problems they have with the desalination process.
The Poseidon Project was protested by many. People protested against The Poseidon Project. From a different perspective, however, fixing what was already done is expensive. The owners of desalination facilities who already have pipes which harm the sea life are not able to afford to change their entire desalination processes. Although desalination plant operators want to be good to the environment, they do not have the funds to pay for a new system. They would also have to find a way to get water without using oil. Solar panels cost a lot of money. Solar panels are very expensive. That’s a huge amount of money. Many would suggest that solar panels be installed on one-and-ahalf desalination plant instead of a wind turbine. But they don’t know how much more expensive wind turbines are. (Barringer Par 5) Wind turbines are also not as profitable because it is impossible to predict how much wind will be received unless you have a desalination facility in the Middle East or Chicago. This is a lot of money. Owners of desalination plants are key in understanding how the process is carried out and how the problem can be solved.
New technology in the science field is the solution to high energy consumption and brine production. Multi-chamber non-nucleus or multi-chamber microbial de-salination can solve the problem of high energy consumption. The process of desalination takes 60 days per batch. Reverse osmosis and heat-powered desalination take an average of 30 to 90 days. The water is treated in five different “chambers”. In essence, anaerobic bacteria go through the two first “chambers”. This removes oxygen from the water in exchange for removing most of its salt. In the last “chamber”, there is only a tiny amount of sodium chloride. Then, they add pressure to the final “chamber”, which removes all the salt and bad bacteria. This pressure essentially squeezes the bacteria and salt out. This process is very energy efficient and produces a very small amount of brine. (Rish Kurtz 2) Only bad bacteria are removed from the water. This is not what humans need. It will keep the good bacteria, which is beneficial to humans. Some scientists and environmentalists want to use this method of desalination in desalination plant to save the planet.
Grossman, and Cohen, two men, have devised a method to remove brine. The brine is disposed of in a small area that cannot be reached by humans or animals. They are currently developing a substance that will breakdown the sodium-chloride water. The brine is simply destroyed. It is the only solution that works for now. This plan has been tried before, but no other method worked.
The Poseidon Project has developed a way to retrieve water without harming marine life. They placed a large pipe with a mesh screen over it, which was located above the sea floor. The sand is vacuumed through, which aids in the desalination process. The desalination process is essentially half done. The process will take less time and produce or use less energy or brine. The owners of desalination plants would save a lot of cash if they did this. They wouldn’t have to pay a fortune to remove the pipe and drop everything. They only had to pay for the digging. It is a process that helps the desalination go faster. Desalination can be done faster and more efficiently, which increases sales. As the plant’s revenue increases, they can use the extra money to come up with a way to make water that is cheaper, easier and environmentally friendly. In turn, this will increase sales. It’ll look like an advertisement for Kaplan University, where there is only one circle. Poseidon Project not only learned to make its process more environmentally friendly, but also how to benefit themselves. If the owners of desalination plants learned how to do this, college students wouldn’t have to spend time writing arguments to convince them to change. Californians are satisfied with the outcome of this process, as no marine life is harmed.
Desalination harms the environment in many ways, such as the production and disposal of brine. Other factors include the use of energy and oil. Desalination might be the answer to a big problem: not enough clean drinking-water. But it comes with its own set of problems. Desalination may be a solution to a major problem, but it has many other problems. Once the problems with desalination are addressed, it will be possible to tackle the greater problem of not enough drinking water. Only then can we ensure the future safety of our children. You can only help the environment by stopping desalination plants from destroying our beautiful planet.
