desalination, page-3

Try geothermal distillation, Kashga. Reverse osmosis is a complicated waste of energy, bleeding in several steps that distillation avoids (although geothermal could theoretically contribute energy to an RO plant by powering the energy-intensive pumps).

I've been waiting on some costing figures from a friend for a little while now (to use in discussion of CNM, a wave power company pursuing desalinisation), we've talked through the average operation costs and power requirements for various desal plants, and the economics are in favour of geothermal, but I'll post more reliably when I get those figures sorted - until then, it's just some anonymous opinion on HC!

For general interest, PAX and TEY also have highly interesting desal potential - unfortunately, GDY has none.

Besides the large capex on a fossil-fuel desal plant, there are huge opex costs, stemming primarily from the enormous power consumption reqired for the pumps. If you've ever seen an RO unit up close, you'll understand why it is such an inefficient process, with huge pipes full of semi-permeable microtubes that requires enormous pressures to reverse the osmosis process that is all the while resisting the flow.

Geothermal distillation, bypassing the enormous energy costs, is a beast based around capex, with a minimal opex (no fuel costs and a much simpler plant design).

Short answer: The science adds up, and is readily modeled.
Long answer: I'll get back to you with figures.

Cheers