VUL megathread, page-789

I got lucky and picked up at $2.10 today - Sure I have read heaps of your posts and know I am Johnny Come Lately, but that just means I say 'Good luck to all of you'

I do not underestimate the value of Green Lithium - it has political connotations which are inestimable - but Geothermal Lithium is only one way to go - solar in The Lithium Triangle is almost a given for me and the DLE process with return of spent brine would work there without doubt. Evaporation of scarce water is even worst than carbon emissions, in many eyes.

My professional background is Mechanical Engineering - a degree with lots of distinctions in Advanced Engineering Mathematics and Thermodynamics - and in London for several years I worked for a Consultant Firm which did Nuclear, Thermal, Hydro, Gas-Turbine generating stations. My view of the tech here is that it is quite standard 'run of the mill' and linking the DLE to the Geothermal will be easy. By standard 'run of the mill' I do not mean there won't be problems, there always are. And if you look at the Advanced Gas Cooled Reactor (AGR) the fatal flaw is a simple problem which was never solved.
Let me just rave on a bit - because my engineering boss was a Cockney, and with not too much maths etc at all - he was not only the funniest guy I ever met, but was super smart and canny, and the best boss I ever had - If he was in charge of this project there would be no problems at all. And there in lies the first of my concerns - there might be too many 'experts' and not enough Cockneys on the job.

My second, I hope a rather minor concern is to do with flow rates in the aquifer. There is an awful lot known about flow rates from oil drilling and I guess geothermal exploitation also. They can be increased by horizontal drilling, at a price, but lets hope they don't have to frack - I am sure it could be done safely at the depth but it might be hard to sell the locals. Has anything been said about establishing the required flow rates?

Conference overnight will be interesting - we might even find that Vulcan will be a household word tomorrow.

I rave on, as you can see, so DYOR and don't base any decisions on what I say. GL.