Fresh Water at Zero Energy Cost . How do they do that?

By 2050, fresh water may be inaccessible to as many as a billion people. Current desalination methods will be using vast amounts of energy to keep up by then, producing no less than 5% of total global greenhouse gas emissions, not to mention untold harm to marine ecosystems from outflow of concentrated brine solution into the open sea. If we could solve those problems then the future would look a bit brighter. And now we can...
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[@rmar127]

An Israeli scientist has stumbled upon a solution to the brine problem. He uses mineral accretion through electrolysis to concentrate all of the salts and minerals into solid bars. These bars can then be processed to recover minerals for industrial and construction processes

[@Unitedstatesian]

I had this idea 10 years ago while working on the construction of a large desalination plant. The engineers all thought it was a good idea, but with 100 problems. The first problem is that most coastlines don't have consistent waves. Some coasts have little or no movement for days. The second problem is maintenance. Anything done offshore is 10 to 100 times more expensive and slow. One engineer suggested the Western coast of Australia for consistent wave action. However, I think there is already something similar to be tested in that area? This would probably be good in some niche applications. My design was actually to scale it massively to a large floating platform/barge. Something big enough to have a crew and multiple sources of energy (waves, solar, wind, thermal differential, etc...) However, I wish them the best and that they prove the desalination engineers wrong!

[@florinadrian5174]

Wouldn't scaling it up make using the waves more difficult because a large floating structure is moved less by the waves?

[@thexperimenter88]

On the faq section of their website they state that the buoys will be installed 0.5-1.5kms from the coast. They also start producing water at the 1m wave and optimal production is at a 1.5m wave

[@Unitedstatesian]

@@florinadrian5174 no, the ocean is a million times more powerful than needed.

[@Unitedstatesian]

@@thexperimenter88 anything offshore is complex. Even at 100m. And nobody can control if and when there are waves.

[@thexperimenter88]

@@Unitedstatesian there wouldn’t need to be waves all the time, they just need to be recurring frequently enough. I would expect that a study of at least a year would be done before the installation so that the best coast/site is identified and risk is mitigated. The website says that they can even install it up to 5kms from the coast if required. The website also states that maintenance is expected to be minimal and the site expected to last about 20 years, however they have not built the glacier system yet which is the real game-changer. So I do not expect we will hear from this company for another 5 years but to me it looks like the best solution to the desalination problem if they can scale it up

[@tommclean7410]

I love the simplicity and efficiency of not having to convert mechanical energy to electrical energy and back again. Two big areas of concerns are durability and maintenance costs. If more offshore testing reveals problems with those I hope they can find good solutions.

[@introprospector]

Direct kinetic energy use could work for reverse osmosis in windmills. That'd get rid of the generators but you'd still need motors as a backup, and I'm not sure how drive shaft technology has faired since the electrification of industry. It fits wind well since you store the energy as a product and save on conversion/transmission losses. To reduce drive shaft complexity and gearing you can use a decentralized layout and pump the water like in the video but that complicates the backup motor system.

[@BobBob-kr5wr]

Sounds wonderful. I would love to see an update on this video in 6 months to a year with peer reviews of this tech.

[@JustHaveaThink]

Will do

[@tripvic7629]

@@JustHaveaThink 🤞

[@Crunch_dGH]

@@JustHaveaThink Darn! I wish I’d seen this in time to attend Oneka’s November 17th presentation at the 14th Annual BlueTech Week in San Diego, that’s just a hop from here in Newport Beach! Anyone here able to attend? Our local community only last year blocked the Poseidon plant scheduled for Huntington Beach, due to the destructive downsides & economic inefficiencies you mentioned. Here’s hoping that Oneka’s FL pilot pans out, as we in the Southern California “desert” would surely welcome them! From reading the comments: Re: Ocean Stresses, Collection Infrastructure, Maintenance, etc. They could be located a few miles offshore, where our defunct oil platforms, with their convenient anchor pads, are now. There could be single manifolds bringing fresh water down from a wind farm-like array of surface plants with piping piggybacking on existing oil to shore make ways. There could even be large solar & wind arrays out there sharing a common infrastructure. We have two such sites located ~1/4 mile apart that could provide redundancy. As decades long drill rig dismantling is underway, I’m sure this would be welcomed by the local community of those with the needed expertise & experience to make the transition. From my 10 months working on San Clemente Is. (down coast from Sealab where we chatted with the Cousteau support divers) & being “in” the sea as a lifelong surfer, this sort of thing doesn’t seem anywhere near as challenging as what North Seas wind farms pose. And HB is known as Surf City from its consistent waves where most of the damaging stuff gets filtered by all of our Channel Islands. The biggest I’ve ridden (in SD) was 18’ & it very rarely gets over “pier busting” 15’. Circulating the components for maintenance should be a no brainer with a support/maintenance facility in San Pedro or even off/near Seal Beach (whose very activist residents might welcome the opportunities after thorough consideration). We also have one of the world’s largest (ocean charged?) aquifers that could serve as a storage repository. Please keep us updated! Thx.

[@gordonhall9943]

@@JustHaveaThink looking forward to it.

[@tedmoss]

@@Crunch_dGH Just keep stealing the water from Arizona, its cheaper.

[@piernikowyloodek]

I love it when you bring us some good news

[@JustHaveaThink]

Glad you liked it :-)

[@itsrachelfish]

Amen! We need more hope

[@tonn333]

Good news is that we have a saviour.

[@pdxyadayada]

Nice to see you moving up! Your enthusiasm has also ranked up a bit. Bravo!

[@oamath]

I've been involved with the water industry in the US for two decades and I'm always excited to see anyone working on solving the problem of humanity's ever increasing need for more potable water. Although in the long run I don't think this technology will be able to produce cheaper water since my understanding is that the RO filters are the major expense I still think this is a brilliant idea and I'm glad they are doing it. One of the factors I like is that they are modular. Anytime you can create redundancy your reliability increases and I think that is important.

[@tedmoss]

We just need less people, send them to Mars.

[@niconico3907]

Everytime you put technology in the sea, the reliability decreases.

[@CM-ny7qs]

One of the aspects you did not bring up I read studies on is an aquaculture platform associated with the float development I think it was called “eco park” concept that takes advantage of the ocean’s natural habitat for food production (Ex seaweed production, fish school aggregation, etc). When combined water and aquaculture revenue resources are used the capital cost picture gets less challenging. Would be interesting if these folks team up with the engineers who did the eco park concept (that was a Cozumel feasibility study for OTEC energy barge, desalinated water, plus aquaculture; I ran the numbers on that out of curiosity to check how it looks from a U.S. municipal energy and water pass through off take). Aquaculture basically paid for the build in that study - but I’m always skeptical about something paying for itself on paper like that. Interesting thought though.

[@niconico3907]

Water from an aquaculture plarform is not the cleanest, so it would probably be bad for the filters.

[@russvhill2]

At last Dave, a video which does not feature a new battery start-up! I hope this one succeeds because it could save lives and reduce future water wars. Thanks for showing it to us 👍🏻

[@ScumbagSolo]

My sense is, the maintenance costs are going to replace the cost of electricity.

[@Naeddyr]

At least the connection to the mainland is a water hose and not an electric cable, which sounds like a plus compared to wave energy electric generators

[@Dorian803]

Electrical power needs maintenance too

[@b05296]

Sounds like jobs to me....

[@jmr]

Agreed! Instead of one huge plant we will have thousands of small plants. That will make maintenance more difficult and more expensive.

[@filonin2]

@@jmr Why would it be harder? Since they are small you can just tow them to shore for repair if need be.

[@ttystikkrocks1042]

Hey, the background is nice and I'm all for being comfortable! I'm glad to hear of your ongoing success!

[@rockman531]

Fantastic! I hope those people figure out the large scale plants ASAP!! Congratulations to them! And thank you for bringing this info to us! Take Care, Jim in Phoenix.

[@eaglechawks3933]

They are talking about 2 cents a gallon at scale so that is perfectly in tune with municipal water systems. My only question would be on system maintenance -- a 60 micron intake filter would seem to me to require quite a bit of cleaning to keep the water flowing.

[@riveness]

Just build several units in a duty standby mode. The maintenance is well known though the cost of that scale maybe an issue.

[@pauleohl]

Think revere flush to clean the filter.

[@rogerbarton1790]

@@pauleohl Yes, it showed the brine being expelled through the filter.

[@DavidM2002]

@@riveness A spare or two is almost always a good idea but that adds to your costs.

[@riveness]

@@DavidM2002 of course. But you would not leave the critical inlet without redundancy

[@vincentbarkley9121]

As a sailor I have some idea about the constant need for upkeep of marine systems. Missing was the cost of maintenance. Filters and strainers must be cleaned/replaced. Mechanical systems in seawater don't live forever. Production will be strongly related to sea state, also unstated. Solar panels get coated in guano and sea salt. Storms? Logs and floating debris?

[@manlystyleunder50]

If you worked with heavy machinery, tractors and semi-trucks you would have made the same deduction. Wear affects all mechanical parts and manufacturing/quality control affects all manufactured components, so basically everything lol

[@luke9033]

Just happy you're safe and warm, Dave. Keep up the good work 😉.

[@Sa-fd7ih]

Very nicely-produced video and easy to understand! Please keep us updated on this! ❤

[@GreenJimll]

Considering how hotter summers seem to strain the old UK potable water supply industry, I wouldn't be surprised to see something like these deployed around the coast in the next few decades. I wonder if their technology could be merged with off shore wind (and maybe solar) generation, so that one platform generates both fresh water and renewable energy (for more than just their sensors)?

[@sammason2300]

Britain is blessed with abundant rainfall. A bit of moderation during the occasional dry spell is all that's required

[@DistinctiveBlend]

@@sammason2300 Personally I don't have faith in a mass of people to selflessly regulate themselves. Therefore I think having a backup system is better than relying on the good will of the people.

[@unatwomey7112]

The UK had a problem with sewage discharge onto beaches this year. Look up Feargal Sharkey. Happened directly after they got some rain after prolonged drought.

[@Adrian_Nel]

@Jon Knight. Hello. My understanding of these matters is that adding the ability to send electricity to shore would add significant cost, so if you perhaps looked at this from the "add this to an existing floating platform of some kind" angle, then possibly yes, but that would significantly change the approach being taken here...

[@Merlin3189]

As a denizen of the arid UK, living in the centre, away from any waves, but enjoying an annual rainfall that could meet the most extravagant demands for water imaginable, I would have thought we need only capture and store a slightly increased proportion of rain to have more than we need. Even moderation would not be needed.

[@brentjackson2312]

Would love to see a scaled-down version of this suitable for boats (10-20 gallons/day). Current onboard desalination solutions are not only complex and costly, but consume significant amounts of power that must be generated (solar, wind, generator, etc.).

[@katm9877]

Yeah. Land-based desalination plant users have some sort of an alternative usually (a more pricey/difficult alternative but still an alternative, e.g. a trek to some sort of a well dozens of miles away). On a boat, there is literally NO alternative (and you need fresh water for not just drinking, but also washing dishes/clothes/yourselves as salty water is higroscopic and further salt will simply stick to you, you will never be clean)

[@niconico3907]

You need a mooring line for the desal system to work. So it won't work when you are sailing.

[@katm9877]

@@niconico3907 does the line need to be above water? Ships often pull various lines behind them for various reasons...

[@niconico3907]

@@katm9877 the line is attached to the ground on one side and on the pulley and hydraulic cylinder of the buoy on the other side. So when the buoy moves up and down with the waves, it makes cycles of pulls and release the rope which create mechanical power. If there is no fixed point on the bottom of the sea, energy won't come from the waves but from the boat itself.

[@klausbrinck2137]

"scaled-down version of this (10-20 gallons/day)" can be built by yourself, as it should be sufficiently small for DIY... Of course, the system in anchored on the ground, and as others said, cannot be used when sailing, only when standing still, and being anchored. And when anchored, most probably in a marina, the waves are much smaller than on the open sea...

[@donscott1764]

Great to see ideas being explored and implemented. Your explanation is well done as usual. Thanks!

[@larrythomas4614]

I absolutely enjoy your videos, learning so much from you - thanks! Frankly I did like your prior background. If you’re going to continue using this room, please add some lights.

[@melange78]

I have never understood the brine issue. You just need to dilute the brine in more water before you release it to bring it down.

[@tedmoss]

Ignore the facts that don't support your argument.

[@jeffsteinmetz7188]

As a California resident this video was very encouraging. I am curious about what is involved in the maintenance of such devices. Also, as a surfer I know the waves can be very small thus limiting the mechanical drive needed to produce fresh water. What is the minimum wave height required to produce the needed pressure to drive the system?

[@kensmith5694]

I imagine it can be made so that the amount of water produced per hour increases and decreases with wave height rather than having it drop to zero. It would be a matter of the amount of mechanical leverage to give to the wave motion. With only slightly clever engineering, leverages can be adjusted. Wave conditions tend to last for hours so the adjustment would only need to happen slowly. This would put it in the grasp of a small solar panel's power output.

[@nathanielstephenson7932]

CA resident here, and I always like seeing new developments in desalination. I do see maintenance as a big issue. Standard desalination plants need constant maintenance too, but they aren't floating in the ocean. As for the needed wave height, I think that value could be quite low. With enough displacement and anchor weight, large forces and pressures could be generate with a delta height of a few inches depending on a) the ability to convert delta h into vertical motion as opposed to pitch, and b) the speed and effectiveness of the check valves. If all of those design elements can be met, operation could be possible in nearly all surface conditions, albeit with reduced output in calm conditions. If I were designing the system I would run 3 in tandem (merging after the pressure unit) to take out pitch losses in calm conditions, and allow for higher output in rough conditions.

[@lynnrumsey3296]

Do the salt water batteries require the water? Would it be possible to extract the salt to use in the salt batteries rather than dumping it back into the ocean? Salt water batteries are touted as safer than lithium.

[@Rkcuddles]

It seems you can put these as far out as you want and use mini pipelines to send the water back to shore. Also, the waves don’t need to be surfing waves…. The shipping lanes probably generate enough just on their own.

[@xxwookey]

@@kensmith5694 I wonder if it's as simple as a ratchet to drive the pressurising system? Then more or less any wave size bigger than the ratchet step (a couple of cm?) will add some energy.

[@mikeaustin4138]

The best thing about this channel is that it's one of the few (only?) channel(s) I'm aware of that actually focuses on *solutions*. Thank you.

[@SkepticalCaveman]

At a first glance this sounds brilliant. Hopefully it becomes the future way to.desalinate water.

[@seanbell6371]

Excellent report. Makes me think that we need more “decentralized” micro systems, be it power generation or water desalination. The great utility scale / “economy of scale” solutions sometimes generate bigger problems in a spatial and temporal sense.

[@pohkeee]

Yes…the knee jerk response is usually that decentralization is inefficient, but the flip side is one ginormous Achilles heel (brine concentration, no redundancy and failure causing widespread disruption). Diversity of systems and wide distribution principles bring us back to the strategies in nature. Maintenance issues are also offset by having the components easily retrievable …they can still be serviced and repaired at a more centralized facility, but their distribution and redundancy actually equates to more continuity or service and less likelihood of widespread disruptions.

[@tedmoss]

@@pohkeee Why don't they haul the broken wind turbines to a central repair facility?

[@kimhunter8395]

I also support decentralised systems. I see these small desalination rafts as an addition to current water systems in places like California to take the pressure off the current system and reduce the use of Colorado River water in the state.

[@nevadaxtube]

Brilliant solution. Thanks for the great info as usual!

[@isaacm1929]

I liked the change! Now you have more confort for the videos! Have a great week, sir!

[@JustHaveaThink]

Thank you Isaac. Much appreciated. You have a good week too :-)

[@samlair3342]

As usual, your topic and presentation is excellent! As for your new setting, better illumination would be nice.

[@JustHaveaThink]

Thanks Sam. Played with the lighting a bit for the next video (next Sunday). I think it's a bit better for that one.

[@Mekuso8]

This sounds like a really clever solution. There are some concerns about the practicality, in particular when it comes to maintaining a distributed system out at sea. To me, this sounds like problems that can and need to be fixed, rather than problems that would make the whole system infeasible

[@vesivanov5706]

This was a very inspiring video. I've been thinking for quite a while about wave powered converters and wave powered battery storage, but this mechanical invention is a great idea as well. There will be mechanical challenges, as always there are, but never the less the idea is brilliant and I wish them the best of luck!! Hope to see an updates in few months. Thank you for the inspiring video!

[@saurabhargupta7963]

This channel deserves more than a million subscribers.

[@alistairshanks5099]

It looks like a great idea for particular applications. I hope the testing turns out well for them. More power to engineering I say. Having a team of engineers develop a project and then have a team of engineers says why it won't work and then have a team of engineers make it work is their version of scientific peer review without the waffle speak.

[@human_isomer]

Besides the one made from recycled PET (which would disintegrate over time in the alkaline sea water) it seems to be a good idea. However, many small units usually cause higher cost per production unit, and more problems than one big unit. And if they can pipe the fresh water to the shore, they could surely use a similar system to distribute the brine over a wider area for a big unit. Well, let's see how it will work.

[@DunnickFayuro]

Thanks for letting me learn about a company almost next door to me and that I've never heard about.

[@jfjoubertquebec]

Bravo Camille!

[@nacoran]

It will be interesting to see how it scales. I'd think wave energy would be less and less effective at moving the platform as it gets bigger, at least relative to its size, and that the salinity radius would be considerably larger than a couple meters for the bigger platforms. I could see it working very well for places like islands though, where you have a lot of shoreline relative to the amount of water you need. Obviously, somewhere off screen, the Professor had Gilligan and Skipper build one of these. It always bothered me that they didn't seem to have any shortages of fresh water on such a small island!

[@lawrencefrost9063]

I think that's why instead of building bigger and bigger the glacier class was comprised of 40 units, instead of a few huge ones.

[@JohnnyWednesday]

The key is to bring down the cost of the platforms - with intended installations to be a rough grid in the water, perhaps they could serve dual purpose as fish farms or as hybrid systems designed to be installed on existing wave energy generators to provide water generation options to their customers etc

[@In20xx]

This helps with research for my sci fi story. Thanks for making!

[@adriandoyle2090]

Good to see the tech development, go to be a better way than now. Might need to look at your lighting levels in your new filming location.

[@hankj7077]

Thanks for letting us in, shoes off I take it.

[@danyoutube7491]

Whoops, I've already trodden a load of mud over his carpet in my eagerness to get inside and my bum on the settee. If only I'd paused to just have a ...

[@JustHaveaThink]

Of course :-)

[@aenorist2431]

Ima not hold my breath for this to be scalable and cost efficient. Like, at all.

[@badrinair]

Very interesting. Thank you for sharing Dave.

[@sc20910]

Brilliant! Also , count me in for liking the new background, whilst also wishing for more lighting front and back

[@JustHaveaThink]

Played with the lighting a bit for the next video (next Sunday). I think it's a bit better for that one.

[@rogerwilson6367]

I'm not knocking this process but it is still prone to eventual storm damage and marine growth at the intakes. Hope they can overcome these problems.

[@trueriver1950]

Marine growth at the intakes is almost as much as issue with the current large scale desal plants -- the added disadvantage here is that with the intakes being distributed it would take more effort to keep them clean than for one single intake. Storm damage is a fair point: in the extreme the whole flotilla of desal boats could "escape" in a severe storm and you'd not only lose production at the time when you most need it (think after a hurricane) you'd have damages to pay to anyone whose property was damaged by those rogue boats.

[@rogerwilson6367]

@@trueriver1950 I worked in desalination for 25 years (Thermal) and intakes were always a problem with regard to marine growth. Some large plants had mechanised screen cleaning systems, but this only worked for initial large debris collection.

[@trueriver1950]

@@rogerwilson6367 :) seems like we agree then

[@rogerwilson6367]

@@trueriver1950 Yes 😃

[@SeeNickView]

I love the modularity introduced by the Oneka team. Seems to me that they've put thought into the Operation of this tech in the design stage, even before selling the first unit. I can see how they won that DoE grant. One thing that stuck out to me, however, was that these devices float and operate in 1 meter-high water, meaning that these devices will be deployed in majority coastline waters. These waters are already being pursued for a number of interests, like tourism or real estate or wildlife sanctuaries, so I would want this company to be lock-step in communications with those stakeholders. Lastly, even though this tech is mechanics-based and no electricity-based, I think it would behoove Oneka to keep an eye on offshore wind farms and consider mutual operation therein. We've already seen in the last few weeks how China deployed an offshore wind + solar farm, first in the world. So while I doubt that sort of integration is possible at this stage for this kind of tech, I think it's still something to consider because offshore wind/solar platforms open up more rigging space than endangered coastlines. Then again though, the whole mechanical design might not even work for deployments that far out from shore. Electric-based systems could help here, piggy backing off curtailed renewables, but that idea is clearly outside the scope of this company. Great innovation! Thanks for covering it Dave!

[@AnalystPrime]

Keeping close to the shore would also be necessary to keep the water pipes short enough that the system does not cost too much or need extra pumps. Like wind farms, the platforms would have lots of free space between units so most activities can be done without them interfering each other. But yeah, no doubt it would cause trouble if someone wanted to use that area for a public beach or boat channel.

[@SeeNickView]

@@AnalystPrime You're right. Offshore platform integration might be better suited for utility/municipal scales.

[@veronicathecow]

Brilliant idea, thanks for sharing.

[@gefginn3699]

I enjoyed this post very very much. Very exciting for coastal residents.

[@catandtheostrich]

Need some fill light there! Do you have a ring light to go behind/around the camera, Dave?

[@JustHaveaThink]

Played with the lighting a bit for the next video (next Sunday). I think it's a bit better for that one.

[@madcow3417]

I find the conversion to/from electricity to be frustratingly inefficient. I'm always looking for passive solar tech. Passive wave tech is a new one for me, very cool.

[@timbrown9305]

So nice to count on your videos to be sophisticated and only well mannered conversation. Thanks for being the adult in the room.

[@peterbroderson6080]

Fabulous! Just the type of thinking we need. Now we need to find a productive use of the brine!

[@mukhtar__]

love the new set actually!

[@incognitotorpedo42]

You still have the portrait that one of your viewers' little kid drew, so I'm good with the new background.

[@JustHaveaThink]

Wouldn't ever have lost that :-)

[@BillMSmith]

It's encouraging that there are people who can see options to conventional (just add more energy) thinking to solve problems. I like the new setup, but I think your lighting may require some tweaking. I noticed that your eyes changed from fairly well lit to very shadowy as you moved. So, more light or a head restraint? 😉

[@kensmith5694]

More light coming from the general area of the camera would be a good way to improve the lighting. A spread out light source from that direction would always light all of his face even if he turns his head a bit. Ideally the source should extend both sides of the camera.

[@JustHaveaThink]

Played with the lighting a bit for the next video (next Sunday). I think it's a bit better for that one.

[@DistinctiveBlend]

My vote would be for the head restraint idea :D I'm sure it wouldn't be distracting or cause any questions at all

[@falconerd343]

@@kensmith5694 thus ring lights ;)

[@kensmith5694]

@@falconerd343 Ring lights tend to put all the light face on. "fill lights" are needed with them.

[@josephmurolo5656]

I like the change, so long as you don’t change. Love your channel!

[@JustHaveaThink]

Thanks Joseph. I appreciate that!

[@jeremysimmons8864]

I'm a mechanical engineer and have been in the wave-powered RO industry for the last five years. Its nice to see a a video put up about it.

[@santoast24]

I've ALWAYS been a big fan of desalinization. Among my big questions tho is, why do we have to pump the salts back into the seas? Surely some of those trace elements would be valuable enough to capture them right? Or even to be sold off as... well... salt, rather than mining it as we do in so many places? Also, obviously all, or meaningfully all, the water we would pump out would go back into the sea eventually, further negating the salinity issue in the long term, but more locally is it reasonable to assume that for megacities that might come to rely on desalination that it could affect local sea level and water currents or is that far too large of a problem for any one city to cause? Humans have always been good at saying "that wont be a problem" only for it to turn into... well... climate change

[@phizc]

The brine from reverse osmosis is only about 3 times more salty than normal sea water. It's enough to be bad for the local environment, but not enough to be profitable to concentrate further. With distillation it might be a different case since you could in theory evaporate enough water that the salt would precipitate when the water cools down.

[@willabyuberton818]

My biggest question is how energy-intensive it is to make and maintain the platform itself, in comparison to other solutions. I don't see it being necessarily worse, but it can be an important factor.

[@filonin2]

It's a floating barge. Not much energy needed.

[@kensmith5694]

@@filonin2 Yes once deployed it only needs a bit of a bilge pump to keep it floating as some slightly clever cables to keep it on station. It may be worth adding a winch system that can pull the whole thing down to the bottom to ride out a storm.

[@dosadoodle]

I also just don't see this happening, but I'd love it if the team can prove me wrong. My main worry is, like you've implied, underestimation of how much it costs to keep something sea-worthy, especially something like this where it's attached to the bottom and is getting yanked on with every wave, likely requiring annual or even quarterly maintenance that will be expensive. I'm also curious on how it could be deployed near population centers, where water recreation is in high demand. Many in the population, especially those with the deepest pockets who live on the coast and have boats they want to sail around in where they please, will not want their water space taken up and disrupted. This means there are likely to be deep-pocketed enemies of deployment of this technology anywhere near population centers, and that's another issue the company will need to work through. (Though my guess is that this is a smaller problem than the material and maintenance economics.)

[@akash_goel]

@@dosadoodle You have a point - saline water would probably corrode some materials faster which could require an accelerated maintenance schedule. But there could also be a silver bullet here - most water-proof materials made from plastics (fossil-fuel or plant-based) are generally more resistant to corrosion from salinity, and the fact that the whole thing is supported by its buoyancy, means that it shouldn't require materials which need to bear much load (such as metals and metal-based composites, that corrode faster). So I'm thinking that perhaps the materials tradeoff could actually make this thing require less maintenance than on-land desalinization plants. It would like comparing apples and oranges in terms of maintenance.

[@fimbulkron]

@@filonin2 it's a floating barge that needs to be firmly anchored. So you need a concrete anchor of at least the same weight as the displacement of the barge. In addition a steel chain or cable/s of sufficient strength and durability. So initiale energy expenditures are way higher than it looks on a glance.

[@anthonyspeters7203]

Great you can/need to be in warmer environment! Love your channel always interesting!🤗😘

[@harrywhite7287]

Good job. The answer to most problems is multiple answers and this seems like a good one for some locations. This could also be used with tidal motion.

[@DRakeTRofKBam]

Oneka's approach definetely seems more right since theres no overhead through conversion into electricity. One might have to question if those boats will last long enough over time to make fixed water possible as claimed.

[@SeeNickView]

How long do fishing boats last in the ocean? Years? Decades? Do these boats use the same materials as those industrial boats?

[@incognitotorpedo42]

@@SeeNickView These boats are made of recycled plastic. Industrial boats use tougher materials.

[@DRakeTRofKBam]

@@SeeNickView Its not the the large overall but the mechanically intricate parts that are most likely to fail and lead to not working stations. And unlike industiral boats where you literally just slap a zinc plate and let it absorb the corrosion, you cant to that in teeny tiny details.

[@SeeNickView]

@@DRakeTRofKBam Yeah, I thought it was some sort of cathodic protection. That kind of configuration for Oneka's technology would mean a lot more operational labor, especially for larger and large fleets. Does probably make more sense to go with (recycled) plastic in this case

[@franziskani]

@@incognitotorpedo42 If they scale it up to mass production it might be more sustainable to produce the platforms with materials suited for commercial boats. Even if those materials are "problematic" they might be better / more sustainable all things considered. I think the "recycled plastic" bullet point is a marketing issue. It sounds good when applying for subsidies (one more environmental friendly check) and when trying to get the media interested in reporting. It is not set in stone that is has to be recycled plastics if they ever mass produce. The plumbing, pipes, the pumps & valves must be as durable as possible to lower maintainance cost anyway, so I guess that eliminates recycled materials. The shell can be anything: fibre glass, recycled plastic. As long as it withstands sea water, the mechanical forces, and UV radiation. Until they are able to mass produce there might be new materials or production methods availabe: Better stabilized recycled plastics, "better" (more sustainably) produced conventional materials.

[@audiblevideo]

Glad youre keeping warm. The new setup could use some more light (in intensity).

[@JustHaveaThink]

Played with the lighting a bit for the next video (next Sunday). I think it's a bit better for that one.

[@geordiew2162]

Thanks for the good news!! Brilliant

[@simonbaigrie2485]

Very interesting! The idea to use wave power to power the process is a clever one. I'd also be interested in a video that investigates the possibility of using the brine of the traditional processes to provide sodium for sodium based battery technology

[@simontassano5992]

Just add some lumens…;-) Good on ‘yer Dave. Stay warm.

[@JustHaveaThink]

Played with the lighting a bit for the next video (next Sunday). I think it's a bit better for that one.

[@willcooper7651]

The Oneida technology has gone through vigorous evaluation by various agencies, including the DOE, and has been awarded large sums of money to spur development. While a number of questions and concerns have been brought up in the comments, none of them strike me as show stoppers. Maintenance costs would obviously depend on design considerations and parts/materials replacement costs plus labor. Presumably, the engineers working on the prototypes have factored those issues into the business model. If the company projects that its water will sell for a quarter the cost of the output of existing desalination plants, then I would give them the benefit of the doubt in judging whether maintenance and other operational expenses have been taken into consideration. Personally, I find the technology at least superficially exciting for all the reasons David outlined. I look forward to learning more about it as time goes on. And, yes, David, you need better lighting. 😉

[@faustinpippin9208]

"the engineers working on the prototypes have factored those issues" Oh you would be suprised how mamy terrible projects got thru the "engineering department" and got funding from our tax money. Many "revolutionary ground breaking technologies" are just scams made by rich peple to get funding from the gov (our money)

[@joecornelius4334]

This is both fascinating and encouraging. Thanks, as always. That said, the new, dim, noisy, low-res video setup definitely needs some tweaking.

[@carryonsailing]

always great content mate, best wishes from a humble wind sailor...

[@magnetospin]

I am pretty skeptical. Anything done in open water is way more expensive than done on land. How much does it cost to build the platforms? How much does it cost to lay the pipes to shore? How much maintenance does it need?

[@bw1227]

it is just a matter of cost versus profit, we are maintaining oil rigs for decades, so once the water costs more than oil we probably have no problems with costs anymore

[@martinmoss317]

I wonder how the fresh water collector pipe overcomes fatigue and abrasion from constant movement as the floating platform shifts around on the surface of the sea.

[@SeeNickView]

Yeah, they'd need to anchor it with something. Probably an equivalent pilon that you'd use for running conduit aboveground, where the conduit run sits about 30-60 cm above the ground. Thinking a big concrete/steel/plastic staple, but who knows lol

[@filonin2]

A firehose should last several decades.

[@VladimirVasquez]

This looks really great.

[@cliffp73]

Love the change.

[@Teabahgeue]

I would have thought that current Desal plants would incorporate salt pools, since you end up with a concentrated brine in the first place might as well turn that waste stream into something profitable.

[@aenorist2431]

Way, way too much salt for there to be a use for it. Also usually not situated in a way that allows for square kilometers of pools at all, let alone for that to be financially viable.

[@martincotterill823]

Great video, Dave, I wonder how they stand up to hurricaines or typhoons?

[@SeeNickView]

@@aenorist2431 Sounds like an engineering problem, and not a physics problem.

[@incognitotorpedo42]

@@SeeNickView It's an economics problem. The salt you produced would be worth a lot less than the extra cost of producing it. So it's just like setting fire to large piles of money.

[@SeeNickView]

@@incognitotorpedo42 Salts do have value in the chemicals industry, so I wonder if the supply chains could be set up for that Still, we're talking about exploitation of the ocean's minerals beyond just water now, which to a lot of global organizations can be unethical. Interesting to dream about, maybe

[@richdobbs6595]

Call me dubious. Wave energy is really diffuse. Maintenance of equipment in the sea is expensive. Water is really of low value as products go. Makes more sense to build dams and not have large populations in desert areas without fresh water resources.

[@WWZenaDo]

Totally agree with you, especially about not having large populations - period.

[@SeeNickView]

Las Vegas in the US has extremely efficient water savings practices in place. If anything, dams interrupt ecosystems that can impact other local economic actors, favoring the mega-agrobusiness actors that can afford cuts of the Colorado river and such. Obviously this tech wouldn't work in deserts, so other processes, like humidity capture, might be better suited for the specificities therein.

[@kayakMike1000]

@@WWZenaDo do your part, lead by example.

[@WWZenaDo]

@@kayakMike1000 Already did, you feed-and-breed twit. I chose to avoid ever having children. By the level of smug narcissism you've just demonstrated, the human race definitely doesn't need your barely average genetic material.

[@richdobbs6595]

@@SeeNickView If you have human populations of around 8 billion people, you are going to have dams. The problem with dams is that they never involve market based pricing. Mega-agrobusinesses aren't getting water because they can afford to pay, it is because they have more senior water rights in our flawed system of water property rights.

[@Kevin_Street]

Thank you for the great new video, and for the quick tour of your filming facility. ;-) I always thought you were in a house. As sheds go that one looks very nice, but it is winter now. Desalinating seawater is one of the most important challenges of our time, and it looks like Oneka has some good ideas there. What I like: 1. It's elegant. Using wave power without converting it to electricity is very clever. Presumably this will solve the problem of waves not being constant. Waves pulse like a heartbeat, on and off, which is a problem for machines like motors and pumps that are built to use a steady supply of electricity. If this whole thing is powered by the mechanical action of water pushing through the system it shouldn't matter if everything is idle between pulses. 2. It's decentralized. I love their concept of desalinating 25% of the water and having multiple outfalls from separate units. Desalination is such an industrial process it seems like a sin not to get every last possible drop of water for every unit of energy expended. But if nature is providing the mechanical power, efficiency isn't such a concern. And not hurting the environment (more than it can naturally bear) would make this system vastly preferable to just about everything else. What I'm not so sure about: 1. Maintenance. If these things do form the basis of artificial reefs they're going to get crusted over with all kinds of sea life. That 60 micron strainer at the bottom is particularly vulnerable. It's going to get clogged, and will probably require regular cleaning to keep filter feeders off. The filters inside the unit may be similar. And since they're offshore it means somebody will have to get in a boat on a regular basis and go out there to do maintenance. 2. The pipe to shore. I guess this depends upon how their "pressure and flow optimization system" works. They've got to push the fresh water a long way before it gets to shore, and this process also depends entirely upon wave power. Will there be enough pressure in the pipes to move those huge quantities of water long distances every day? I guess they must have this figured out, but it seems like the hardest part of the process to me. But every system has potential problems, and this one is very clever and looks like it has huge benefits over the usual reverse osmosis. I hope they make a big splash in the industry and become successful.

[@willm5814]

It looks brilliant, definitely will be part of the solution- the key will be the continuous fine-tuning of the design.

[@BMWHP2]

Warm inside your house is good, i would do the same. Oneka seem to be on the right track.

[@Dodgerog]

I've always liked the use of wave power which seems under used to me. As a side note I'm sure it's much nicer to move indoors as the days become colder, perhaps you could add a front 'photography ring led light' to brighten up the presentation slightly as I did turn up the screen brightness on my pad to compensate. If many people did that we would be adding to the power draw slightly which would be ironic 😅. Love the clear way your videos are presented 👍.

[@sabofx]

Thank you for sharing promising tech with us in these otherwise dark times.! 🤗😀😃

[@dann5480]

Love the new background, much less distracting.

[@ThisIsToolman]

Elegant, simple, low tech, addresses an existential problem. There will be bugs to work out but they’ll be fixable. This is the kind of genius that we need in the world.

[@jaredleemease]

Thank you David.

[@JustHaveaThink]

Cheers Jared

[@EdSurridge]

It's brilliant of course and giving of more real hope. Thanks as ever David and Patrons. I consider my knowledge on anchoring boats good hense the question of very deep anchoring. I guess those underwater drones might be required to assure the vessels stay put in worst weathers. They will I giess have the radio auto Identification system AIS, night time warming lights and any fog horns running on the PVs . not a big power ask for this amount of deck space.

[@jameswells2826]

I Really Enjoyed Today's Video And I Really Like What You Did Into The Room

[@JustHaveaThink]

Thank you so much!

[@jameswells2826]

@@JustHaveaThink Your Welcome

[@TheAlvaroReis]

Very elegant solution

[@billyork9588]

Brilliant idea and execution. The only question I have is how much maintenance does the system require as this is not addressed in your video. Thanks for a very informative show!

[@stanleykania7184]

Very nice work here..

[@TheVigilantStewards]

We work in mid and north coast in Kenya and access to water like this could be really really great for local water resiliency!

[@SoloRenegade]

sounds worthy of giving it a shot.

[@basilbrushbooshieboosh5302]

Stunning

[@tylershepard4269]

I love this change! It is a very cozy, and feels intimate.

[@JustHaveaThink]

Cheers Tyler. Much appreciated

[@harveytheparaglidingchaser7039]

What a clever idea!

[@markmuir7338]

Professor Steven Salter of the University of Edinburgh came up with a similar idea about 20 years ago - based on the Salter Duck wave power device he invented in the 1970s. I remember him seeking funding for this idea - but I don't think he managed to get it. Fresh drinking water isn't a concern for the UK... Glad to see a similar idea is gaining interest. I hope these go into wide scale production. Could go a long way to reduce conflicts in several regions of the world.

[@imranb4985]

Another interesting video, thanks.

[@cambrown5633]

The symmetry of the bookshelves is very pleasing

[@shawnr771]

I like the idea. Would there be a way to install a tidal power generator as a complimentary system to the solar for the sensors? Very nice on the new set. I found the background to be bit dark. Your shirt blended well with the wall.

[@stuartgraca]

I am trying to wrap my head over the way the floating station is anchored and how it keeps the outgoing connection with 7 meter waves. This seems good for some locations but what about calmer waters or bay areas . It is encouraging to see a variety of ideas getting tested and in some form used so as to develop them.

[@jameskantor0459]

Shows great promise. I could see this on lakes and maybe rivers as well.

[@James_Ryan]

Like the new set - very homely. :) Just needs a boost of contrast (prolly easy to do during editing) to make it perfect!

[@hobokengar]

Astonishing !