Fresh water with 80% energy savings. Revolutionising desalination!

[@bellshooter]

It's great to see recent innovations in desalination methods. As an Engineer who worked on power and desalination projects in Saudi, Qatar, Bahrain, and Libya, they were clearly relying on waste energy from power stations or industrial processes to provide thermal, multistage desalination. This is clearly better suited to lower technology areas the desperately need fresh water.

[@user-pt1ow8hx5l]

Denmark has, due to regulatory and political fuckups, quite a lot of surplus heat. And a set of new problems, handling water. Would you say that desalination is a consolidated industry one can draw inspiration from?

[@VirtuellJo]

What will the effect be if you put this system in front of traditional desalination plants?

[@TheFabledSCP7000]

​@@user-pt1ow8hx5lcouldn't you use the surplus heat for municipal heating?

[@user-pt1ow8hx5l]

@@TheFabledSCP7000 You have a point. Yet not all of it can, or need be, used for municipal heating.

[@tarstarkusz]

This video is a fine example of why channels like just have a think are BS merchants and not science channels. This is an unconfirmed lab experiment that almost certainly would not scale up to the scale of utility level water treatment. The idea that this could be powered by the sun is delusional.

[@neeosstuff7540]

One challenge I see is biologic fouling. Doing this on a desktop is a big difference than running continuously. To move this to a usable technology will require preventing everything from seaweed to barnacles from growing. Even a tiny amount of fouling will cause turbulent flow completely defeating the separation mechanism.

[@johnfranklin4958]

The good thing is that by applying a charge across the feed, you can create Chlorine from the salt water. This keeps the system biologically clean and perhaps residual Cl (10ppm)in the outlet keeps it potable for longer storage. Have done this as standard with seawater cooling systems.

[@JohnDoe-od1yj]

they pre-filter the water.

[@arthurkarg4613]

In reverse osmosis, the level of salinity is responsible for the necessary pressure. Means, with such a system upstream of an RO, the necessary pressure and related energy consumption of the RO could be reduced significantly! Sounds great!

[@ricklines8755]

Yes, good point there

[@olivier2553]

I was not sure of that, but it makes sense. I have an home RO system to provide domestic drinking water and it does not use as much as energy as mentioned for desalinization.

[@Nosirrbro]

@@olivier2553You get the water from a well yeah?

[@olivier2553]

@@Nosirrbro No, from the main running water distribution, but it is unclear that it is fit for human consumption. Supposedly it is, but no one drink tap water. There is also quite an amount of silt in the tap water. I am in Thailand.

[@Nosirrbro]

@@olivier2553 That makes sense, but yeah that probably doesn’t have much salt in it so it makes sense it’s not as power consuming

[@peterjol]

It's so hard to find quality factual channels like this one that It baffles me that this channel doesn't have millions of subscribers.

[@user-px2sn8pr5t]

its suppressed by Plutarchs

[@brummiesalteno-81]

It's far too sensible and un-clickbaity for the algorithms unfortunately. A very good channel and I particularly like how he goes back to look how new developments are progressing.

[@motivate-today]

It panders to the narrative.

[@marcus-b4x3h]

Most of the world's population is made up of dumb people, and dump people do not get interested in high-quality channels of information because it makes their heads hurt.

[@interstellarsurfer]

Many of his facts are just politically motivated opinions. 🧐

[@teadrinker7098]

The fact that they didn't build an actual working unit that achieved sufficient desalination but it was only theoretical should serve as a dose of enthusiasm dramping reality.

[@seantiz]

Exactly. It would be relatively easy to create their own ”theoretical” version and the obvious fact that they didn’t, speaks volumes. It’s the obvious next step. All that is missing is a cliche claim like “This changes everything, or revolutionizing desalination”…

[@Nphen]

@@seantiz Even if this does work as intended, it will likely be a component in multistage water treatment process. In fact, it seems like this process could be added to almost every existing water treatment plant to increase overall efficiency. The idea is absolutely worth grant money & engineering effort. The combined budget power of every municipal water system & privatized rentier system (that should be public) could easily afford to fund this research, were there some central system that could aggregate their resources.

[@alanhat5252]

@teadrinker7098, they built a system that would fit on a bench with the intention of proving that the idea is valid & could be measured. They succeeded. The next step is to hand it over to engineers to scale it up to a useful working system.

[@dontknowdontcare2531]

ikr

[@commonwombat-h6r]

in science, if you want to build something, unless you pay from your own pocket, you need funding. Applying for funding takes time and energy. Ofthentimes up to a year. So I hope we'll hear from these people again

[@pauloquesado1439]

This just got me thinking on the miracles this can do if applied to the lithium extraction pools in Atacama desert, just passing the water in such structures on the early stages to increase the lithium concentration and recover some fresh water to local agricultural use instead of simply evaporating it

[@alanhat5252]

The Atacama is a desert, there isn't much local agriculture.

[@tumbleddry2887]

I like how you focus on the incremental solutions that are being developed. We often forget about those initially, small, but significant solutions to problems like this...particularly as being a part of already existing technology. Yes, time is critical, but it'll be the low tech solutions that'll win the race...I'm convinced of that. Thank you for your commitment to finding and illuminating these technologies!

[@JustHaveaThink]

Thanks for your support. Much appreciated.

[@skierpage]

Note this is not a solution, it's a possible solution. Mr. Think says "could" a dozen times. It's more R&D than development.

[@unvergebeneid]

0:19 "plenty of precipitation" ah yes, the two things the UK is famous for: plenty of precipitation and understatements.

[@AntonOfTheWoods]

They actually don't get that much precipitation... Plenty of places with far more sun get far more rain. The UK just gets clouds. Neither useful rain nor useful sun. Just clouds. I guess it means the rain they do get doesn't evaporate?

[@DB-pm2vy]

@@AntonOfTheWoodswell we get wind and that’s drying, and why I hang out my washing in it and have to water everything in pots and even in the ground during summer

[@StormGod29]

@unvergebeneid don't forget whinging about the weather!

[@madsam0320]

Yet, we have hosepipe bans every few years.

[@danguee1]

I take it you're not particularly interests in facts, then. You just like slogans? And stereotypes?

[@CaedenV]

Even if this method doesn't get the job done, 2-3 passes like this before using other methods can have significant savings! Less power needed, and much longer lasting filters could be a game changer even for existing systems. Very interesting tech!

[@dentonfender6492]

This technology along with recent discovery that light itself creates evaporation in water sounds like big progress, and huge savings in desalination.

[@pipo5839]

good comment ... suggest that most are not aware that just green photons will cause evaporation

[@disky01]

I was, just yesterday, wondering about the developments on this subject. I knew you'd have something to say about it. Thanks for reading my mind.

[@JustHaveaThink]

Glad it was helpful!

[@aliruane]

‘Just have a drink’ eh? Nice.

[@Kamodomon]

I really like the conclusion of this being a step forward to lead to perhaps a better method down the line. Good way to think of something like this.

[@markapplejohn4376]

Would love to see an update on Wave Energy Desalination. A Canadian company, Oneka Technologies, makes these desalination plants. It would be cool to see how many are now deployed and what further innovations and scale-up is taking place.

[@tumbleddry2887]

Thanks!

[@JustHaveaThink]

WOW. Thanks for your support. Much appreciated :-)

[@showme360]

Great video and I love the lower energy achievement. In our case here in mid Wales we opted to go for rain water harvesting to help reduce our dependence on main water. I found that the IBC tanks used in the drinks industry are very cheap and widely available. So we have 4 of these one thousand litre tanks mounted low in the ground so as to allow a work top above them used for beddings to bring seedlings. Another 2 are sited down the side of the our home. Combined with the 4 water butts we have a storage capacity of 7 thousand litres. This has reduced our water consumption to half, and also means no cleaning was necessary other than some simple inline metal filters. we use the water for flushing the loo, watering plants, and cleanign the cars. Total cost including a pump and pressure tank and pipework £700. We save about £80 a year, so payback should be 9 years. This would make quite a considerable difference to our national water system, and its effects on our environment, if all homes were made this way.

[@clinthastings3254]

Couple of things: 1. It "sounds" to me like the cold plate in this type of system would have to be mechanically cleaned of precipitated salt particles on a fairly regular basis, yes/no? 2. Since they haven't actually constructed or tested an actual working Burgers cascade device yet, I'll have to take their "theoretical" 10% recovery rate stat with a grain of salt (no pun intended).

[@fooflyz]

I say it depends on if the salt deposits or not. If the flow rate is fast enough it should stay clear.

[@CaedenV]

If it isn't being boiled away, then I would think the salt and other things dissolved in the water would remain dissolved. If it was a system where water was continuously being recycled through with the goal of increasingly saltier water, then you would get to a point where the water is saturated and could precipitate salt out and gum things up. But if the saltier water is being cycled out of the system in attempts to get less salt flowing through, then the only potential issue is if the wall material reacted with the water, and that is a largely solved problem.

[@gasdive]

Not to mention biofilms...

[@olivier2553]

The mechanism is more akin to convection, where hot liquid floats to the surface and cold liquid sinks to the bottom. Saltier liquid sinks to the bottom/cold. It naturally happens in the oceans too.

[@bobbun9630]

At the concentration change being discussed, I doubt precipitation is a problem. Various other forms of fouling would be, though.

[@HoboGardenerBen]

One thing I love about camping out long term is gathering my water. Most of the usa water infrastructure is old. The disinfecting agents react with organic solids in the water and make a host of potent chemicals new to science. Better desalination is great, but I'm gonna try and stay in places with forested hills with streams in them to gather the little I need, avoid using water infrastructure in general whenever possible. I use an electric kettle right now parked behind a house and town water coats it with mineral sediment very quickly, stream water boils off clean. Tastes soooooo much better too, town water usually tastes horrible by comparison. It's not that hard, I'm a poor hobo gardener living in a prius and I have gathered all my water this summer, including bathing. But not laundry, I take that to a laundromat. Using a wet rag makes it easy to wash up without using a lot of water. I could use the bathroom where I'm parked, but the forest is better, bathrooms are nasty. So funny, I work as a gardener and rich people buy up all this amazing land in VT and then barely experience it. I am poor but I have so much rich experience with the soil and water of these properties. So much stream water has flowed through my body, I've breathed so much fresh air and touched rich soil and eaten plants from it. People buy land as a wealth flex and then continue to get everything they need from the machine, so silly.

[@robertmorin6495]

Since the best yields are when the plates are close together, put this to use by using that method at the end of the line, Use the plates further apart at the beginning of the line. For the mass flux equation, I wonder if that could be overcome by simply lengthening the distance the water travels through the narrow plates at the end? I like this desalination idea because as you said the water stays in its liquid form, heating the top plate can be done using the best method available, and requires a fraction of the energy other methods use. This method seems very viable and promising. People that have no drinking water won't care much about yields and where the brine goes. They are dying of thirst.

[@Kevin_Street]

There's nothing I can add to this, since you've covered the topic quite completely. It does seem like the technology would work better as an add-on to existing desalination systems, improving their efficiency and reducing cost, rather than a complete system on its own. The 10% recovery rate makes this more of an in-development idea than a finished one that can help rural communities right away. Desalination is a really fascinating subject, though! There's such a complex interplay of economics with engineering and basic science.

[@fayebird1808]

Oneka technologies have a working wave energy powered desalinization plant which is sustainable and affordable .It works without external inputs ,only the work of waves. It redistributes the excess salinity back to the ocean with no impacts to the surrounding sea. Fish and microscopic life are filtered at the input site. The osmosis membrane is cleansed by the process of the pump. This process is scalable in size to the project. I wish the Aussies the best of success in their endeavors.

[@juliamarsh2077]

Is their Californian demo site up and running yet. If it is I hope Dave does a video on them, or features them in a round-up vid of desalination technology that is currently in use or has a live demo system up and running.

[@feynstein1004]

That sounds too good to be true

[@MrMichiel1983]

@@feynstein1004 what does?

[@feynstein1004]

@@MrMichiel1983 Working without external input

[@tarstarkusz]

@@feynstein1004 That's because it likely is.

[@argentum530]

You have a talent for explaining systems which are not yet ready for prime time. The more we know, the more we can know... keep sharing these innovative methods that have promise for scaling up to industrial levels and the associated help to the involved communities.

[@EdSurridge]

Really encouraging developments. Thank you Dave 😊

[@uelmills]

It is encouraging to see progress being made in this important area. Thanks for your work. One important observation: Distilled water is drinkable but it removes minerals making it unhealthy for human consumption over the long term.

[@incognitotorpedo42]

The device in this video doesn't remove all the minerals from the water. A lot of them are left in.

[@id10t98]

If storm runoff was captured, cleaned and stored, I'm guessing many of the water scarcity issues could be solved.

[@chichestermaritime8174]

It could. I have been doing this for around 10 years and every year I learn how to do it better. I manage to harvest around 1,000 litres of drinking quality water per winter - I live in drought stricken S. Europe - and this is sufficient for 2 people plus domestic animals. I also harvest 10,000 litres for irrigation, cleaning etc.

[@Krill_all_health_insuranceCEOs]

​@@chichestermaritime8174 wow sounds awesome. You do it with rain barrels?

[@gregbailey45]

I'm still subscribed and it still takes around a day to be notified of a new post! Thanks for not much, yt!

[@ronvandereerden4714]

It seems like a really low volume system that would require a lot of material to function for any usable quantities of water.

[@criodanomurchu1075]

Definitely something worth a degree of research into, but nothing to pin any hopes on. Kind of how it goes for a lot of these tech, realistic optimism.

[@PrashanthKamath-e2o]

The movement of salt to the cold plate I believe is due to seebeck effect. So in principle, the same movement can be achieved by moving the saline water between dissimilar electronegative plates. I also suspect that the setup you described will generate voltage difference between hot and cold plates. 15kwh energy requirement you mentioned for thermal heating, I presume can be reduced by concentrating Solar Energy onto a fine spray mist of saline water or use black ceramic balls to absorb the concentrated heat onto the salt solution. Anyway Kudos to the team on finding an innovative way to desaline which will reduce water stress of humanity

[@davethefab6339]

We used to make FW from SW at sea using an evaporator by creating a vacuum using pressured sea water pushed through a ventury nozzle. re-directed engine cooling water was pumped through the sea water at about 150 degrees whilst also using cold seawater through another coil at the top for condensing the resulting vapours.

[@TevrenEndrigan]

Awesome potential tech. Add in the newly discovered visible light contributing to evaporation (transverse magnetic polarization, 45 degree incident angle, and green wavelength maximized the effect), and for a bit more energy they might be able to then separate more water from both the low and high salinity flow, increasing their yield of usable water.

[@SheilaMink-c2t]

Thank you for your encouraging video. I hope everyone is having a great day. Sheila Mink in New Mexico

[@barbaralemons4741]

Thanks. Appreciate the breakdown of processes. Another good, factual show in a long series of good shows that are reliably offering progress reports on a wide-ranging set of climate tools the world needs.

[@gonebabygone4116]

Using this as a first stage that eliminates 5/6ths of the salt is big. If the heat is the back side of a solar cell that's being used to drive a reverse osmosis stage that could be a win. I wonder how this would perform in the Persian Gulf, where desalination is reaching a point of diminishing returns due to the increased salinity of the seawater. There has been promising membrane related work using graphene, but I've not kept up with that. Overall a very positive bit of good news.

[@TheDanEdwards]

"Using this as a first stage that eliminates 5/6ths of the salt is big. " - if only the first step did eliminate 5/6th, then it would be world-changing. Instead the first step, if by that you mean the first pass through the mechanism, removes a small percent of the dissolved salt.

[@NicholasWilliams-uk9xu]

Wow that's next level. What a clever idea.

[@Petterikoste]

😊 good stuff as always!

[@lesbrattain6864]

Great! didn't understand most of it but sounds good. Live in Arizona with lots of sun and could stand more water. Bring it on!

[@punditgi]

Bottoms up, Dave! 🎉😊

[@dandantheideasman]

An amazing development - though have a more efficient and cleaner way to desalinate, with extra produce at the end, other than just drinking water. Thoigh the benfits of this system is astonishing. Especially when you consider the applications for industrail waste water. Super cool and keen to learn more on a later follow up video, as this progresses. Kudos and keep at em' 💪🤓

[@steveberkson3873]

Always have appreciated your channel. Good stuff ~ Thanks

[@HeroInHelp]

TY for the commentary sir!

[@peterdollins3610]

Another excellent infiormative video I am thankfully receiving.

[@davidgleatham9966]

interesting, but keeping things cool and hot enough may not be a 'free lunch' if an RO desalinator like I have installed on many pleasure craft were tied to a suitable off grid electrical supply, small villages could have good water. A 1hp/120vac motor hooked to a pressure washer pump will make up to 800 u.s.a gallons (almost 4 liters x 800) per day. Product usually 200 ppm or lower. Rendered sea water tastes sweet. These systems mostly self clean when running and back flush RO media filters upon shutdown. The wastewater could be put in covered ponds that create water vapor by day and the cooler night air chills the cover and distilled water gets harvested, as does salt and minerals. A pvc tarp stretched across a 1m round pit can make a liter of water at night and maybe attract a snake for breakfast.

[@c.l.3806]

Desalination with vacuum works too. Just get the seawater 10 meters above sea level. In a container that is able to hold vacuum. Sunlight evaporates water in vacuum quick. In sea water cold caves the water can be condensated. Pumping really cold water from the deep sea, helps condensation a lot. Sea water under plastic foil is able to produce water too. Just need a place to condense the wet air. Plant houses under salt water can grow vegetables. Just float a canal and put in air filled plastic foils to do agriculture. They float under the water surface.

[@mal2ksc]

Water vapor is really hard on vacuum pumps. This is why it's not a good idea to use a vacuum chamber to dehydrate food, the water fouls up the pump.

[@c.l.3806]

@@mal2ksc With a hight difference of 10 meters, no 'vacuum pump' is needed all the time. The sea water evaporates at the hot spot. The fresh water condenses in the cold spot. If air is pumped out of the system, this works with really low pressure. How much vacuum depends on temperature and contact size of evaporation/dehydration. Just pump out the fresh water, if salt water comes in. Or use 10 meter height difference as fluid pump. No water vapor needs to be pumped.

[@anamariacarvalho6738]

Thanks from Sao Paulo

[@carlosvergara4132]

That's so smart. Love the channel!

[@MakeTechPtyLtd]

Thanks for sharing this discovery from ANU. Great stuff.

[@danielsautot4521]

At Niris Seawater Desalination, we use solar energy for distillation of humanitarian projects. Everything you mentioned earlier is correct, and using solar thermal energy, especially with the impacts of climate change, is the best way to produce fresh water. Another important point is that reverse osmosis pollutes the coast significantly, destroying marine life. It is definitely a solution to avoid.

[@WaqarAslam2000]

Thank you sir for sharing this good news.

[@atrumluminarium]

This feels like this is more suited to be "a step of the assembly line" in traditional desalination plants to bump up the power efficiency rather than be the whole system. At the end of the day I would guess a big tank of seawater mixed with charcoal powder as a black body absorber might be more efficient and reliable as a solar desalination system than having to fine tune these temperature gradients. Also with standard evaporation the heat exchange in the condenser could use the input seawater as a coolant to recover some heat that would otherwise be thrown away.

[@FlyingPastilla]

If integrated with other desalination plants or solar farms, it could be a game changer. Solar panels need cooling to remain efficient and reduce wear so that's one source of heat that could be reused and a lesser salt concentration would reduce power consumption and filter wear. This could make both the solar power plant and the desalination plant more efficient and financially profitable. Add a salt marsh next to it and you can get rid of the brine and produce salt and the thing is solved.

[@GenophefeElisabeth]

Great video as usual. Small correction: 5:14 I'm pretty sure the phenomenon is called 'thermophoretic transport', also known as the Soret effect.

[@celestinarogers2935]

Such an important topic, thanks for bringing this invention to our attention!

[@JustHaveaThink]

Our pleasure!

[@stevenbarrett7648]

I seem to remember when in the RN & MN we had desalination 'bubbles' in the liferafts, seemed to be a big plastic bubble using heat from the sun to desalinate sea water, dunno if they still have these things as that was back in the '70's

[@vylbird8014]

They provide very little water. But very little is a lot better than none in a survival situation.

[@kevinwilson2456]

We have developed a similar system that achieves much higher rates. Natural Atlantic/Pacific Ocean salinity is circa 3.6% depending on the time of year. We can achieve nearer 99% desalination using a system that does not capture the moisture. We use waste products to generate the energy imput for a net zero cost.

[@Krill_all_health_insuranceCEOs]

This is a company you work at?

[@MrRocksoil]

Hope you are right,I'll certainly drink to that dave.

[@angelusmendez5084]

Awesome news ❤

[@kevinwilson2456]

PS: I love your channel

[@andrewarkley3220]

Just as you said I was unsubscribed by KZbin wondered why I hadn’t see you pop up in my feed. Was watch for years. I’m back woohoo

[@floydbertagnolli944]

Another wonderful episode from “just have a solution!” 😊

[@spacelemur7955]

I love good news like this.

[@robertmelius2025]

Great stuff as always, Dave!

[@JustHaveaThink]

Cheers Robert

[@christopherleblanc9599]

maybe have a think that it could be adapted too pre lower the PPM aspect of the feed water before entering a existing plant , thus lowering their maintenance cost ,by precipitating out the base feed stock prior to desalination , you get a pre clean of the feed too the plant ,producing more volume per membrane replacement , increasing efficient ,longevity ,lowering cost , thermo plant would benefit as well depending how they discharge brine

[@mpetersen6]

Ive long wondered why we can't use Ocean Thermal Energy facilities to run desalination facilities. Position the facilities off shore and use purpose built vessels to move the desalinated water to onshore pumping stations. A pilot Ocean Thermal facility was run off shore of Hawaii in the 70s.

[@babaluto]

Try reading about Electrodialysis reversal (EDR) I use it in my closed loop bioreactor to reduce sodium in the feed water. Membranes are good for 20-50 years. First developed in the 1950's. Easy to build, cheap to operate. I believe the city of Barcelona uses it for desal of public drinking water.

[@jasonneugebauer5310]

EDR is amazing from what I gathered from a short look on the internet. Reduced energy consumption compared to reverse osmosis and great potential for brine mineral collection for industrial use. May be a great way to gather magnesium and other needed devolved elements.

[@babaluto]

@@jasonneugebauer5310 There are two companies in Canada and one in Australia that use EDR at the core model of their lithium purification methods. Being that EDR cannot be capitalized as intellectual property being past the patent protection date, these outfits redress the EDR with other accessories without mentioning the EDR. Kinda like a trade secret. It is such a simple process. Cheers!

[@phizc]

Electrodialisys looks promising, but RO beats it unless the concentration is less tha 5000 ppm from what I read.

[@babaluto]

@@phizc As a proven technology, is has also been evolving in large steps. It's all about the membrane(s), the voltage and the amperage applied. In my system, I can pull down the sodium while leaving behind other components. There are many different membranes available through Fuji Film in Tokyo that can be dialed in for just about everything. It is not as thorough as RO as a one pass process, so you can stack various membranes in the same housing to achieve a desired output. The upside is the longevity and not needing any significant pressure. My membranes are over five years old and are as good as the day I put them in. But you are correct about some limitations. Frustrating thing about learning how to build one is that the companies that use the tech are very tight lipped and there is very little how to put there. Fuji has been my best source of how to.

[@freds4703]

Others have mentioned the energy needed to pump all of the water. Also there will be high pressure required to pump through a cascade of mm thin spaces. The narrower the pipe, the higher pressure needed to achieve a given output. Last, biofilms on the plates could be a problem.

[@RayMrRobert]

Love your programming

[@RedRouge-j4j]

There was an experimental method of extracting water from brackish water that involved spraying water in a chamber. The design of the nozzle was critical, but the temperature of the water only needed to be about body heat. Something achievable with TDD

[@degagnemarc]

In Quebec Canada, one developed an offshore, modulable, floating reverse osmosis, that does not require energy input. The pumping action is driven by the wave action of the floating devices. The extra benefits of such technology, is that the brine exuding from the filtration remixes slowly with the water, were it does not affect marine life like with the onshore mega water factories that destroys all surrounding marine life. Low cost, modulable scalable to required needs, no electricity and no damage to marine life. Hope this one finds it's way through!

[@KC-io2rg]

The moment I heard that the materials needs to made from nickel plated copper my heart dropped. Both are some of the most expensive metals out there...

[@nustada]

Since it is a thermal effect, probably isn't a requirement to use those materials. Probably convenient for working with in the lab.

[@Molson4Canadian]

Always worth a watch. Thanks

[@OziBlokeTimG]

Great news, can't wait to see this further tested. Would be a big future for this. 😮

[@hammerdon1962]

Turn it up ! ! Some of us served in the artillery...

[@timogul]

It does seem like it might be useful for that opposite application of hyper-salinating brine solutions, concentrating them even further than they already are, so that you can more efficiently dry them out into an industrial salt product.

[@zkiyyeller3525]

thank you

[@sambojinbojin-sam6550]

Just had a quick read of the research paper. Seems like a Burgers Cascade wouldn't be that hard to model up and then 3d print, maybe utilizing metal sintering. It'd be pretty big though, so would probably have to be done in sections (the paper mentions a 490 cell bifurcation, so even at 2cm per cell, you're looking at a 10m long device). Although you could shorten the flow path by pumping the outlet from one cascade to another fairly easily.

[@nadionmediagroup]

I think I was “unsubscribed” since I was surprised to find I wasn’t. I see your videos in my feed all the time still though. I don’t know if that means anything or lot, still getting shown in my feed, but I’m resubscribed.

[@johnburn8031]

Interesting. Thank you for sharing this with us.

[@pingnick]

Tech Ingredients KZbin channel Revolutionary Paint and immediately previous Air Conditioning one are among many making me hope that sort of technology becomes more standardized🎨🧊🤯

[@pingnick]

One obvious thing is during spring and fall/autumn winter obviously except in extremely hot areas some methodology has to be in place to turn these things off/cover them!?🤯

[@PrashanthKamath-e2o]

The movement of salt to cooler plate is most probably due to seebeck effect. So in essence the same separation should be possible with dissimilar metal plates. 15kw energy that you mentioned for thermal desalination , I presume, can be reduced with concentrating Solar or other thermal sources onto salt water mist , or using black ceramics to absorb maximum heat and hence bring down energy requirements

[@MichaelRada-INDUSTRY50]

Dear David, thank you for your next great THINK. One of the solutions is resuse the grey water in households, industries and cities, currently most of the waster is used just once but charged by th water management companies like VEOLIA, two or event three times.

[@JustHaveaThink]

Very good point Michael.

[@dandantheideasman]

Thank you for being you Tim - I learn something new every time and this was especially amazing. Great to see Blue Origin on the right track. Keep up the awesome work 🧑‍🚀🤠

[@dogbreath6974]

This is "Just Have A Think" not "Everyday Astronaut"

[@dandantheideasman]

@@dogbreath6974 ha ha ha, this was a bug in the system 🤣

[@idjles]

Things like this give me hope

[@d.thomas6988]

Sounds like a good pretreatment system for reverse osmosis desalination every little bit helps

[@UrdnotChuckles]

If we could get to a place of green energy abundance then it would make sense to channel excess power into plain old distillation setups and the like. Other than that yeah, always a good thing to see more energy efficient methods popping up!

[@ianpgeorge]

Just a thought ... PVT+HeatPump ...instead of the described sun on hot / inlet cold arrangement: The described solar thermal setup would harness/put-to-use about ~80% of that solar input .. if the sunlight input is feed through a PVT panel .. you use the thermal harness part of the PVT to get ~60% of the incoming sunlight as heat to heat up that hot side water .. and you also get ~25% of the sunlight as electricity from the electric side of the PVT , feed that electricity to a high efficiency 4COP heat pump to create a larger dT between hot and cold desalination plates .. the combination would allow you create a roughly ~2x larger dT between the hot and cold plates , from the same amount of solar input.

[@jasonneugebauer5310]

Heat pump are expensive and wear out, making their use cost prohibited in low value applications like making water to flush toilets and agricultural use.

[@frozenyogurtist]

Thanks Dave 😊

[@robertstout7756]

You are the best thank you

[@steve37341]

Thanks for the info on the new techniques for getting fresh water to those in need. Hopefully they will get all the problems ironed out and the technology deployed. Btw. There is another technology out there but has only been tested (Yemen, successfully) but has not been rolled out. It's called the Watercone by an inventor in Germany.

[@andrewsmith2591]

Down in One, Dave

[@yvanpimentel9950]

Water in a vacuum boil at temperatures below 60⁰ Celsius, temperature lower than the condenser of a air conditioner or any solar hot water heater.

[@allenmadison8775]

Maybe we could somehow collect some of The rainwater that falls over the sea, and we should put solar panels over our waterways and reservoir to help the water we do have from evaporating.

[@TheBooban]

What I’ve never understood is why humans don’t just cut a channel into the Sahara desert and others, into huge shallow pools, and just leave the water there for evaporation to increase rainfall. Natural and practically free.

[@AlvinnVanAert]

@@TheBooban Cost, thats why.

[@TheBooban]

@@AlvinnVanAert cost of digging a shallow trench? What? I don’t think your calculations are correct.

[@rutufn0596]

Rainwater is polluted, and also undrinkable on the long term without being treated. But sure, it's easier than with salt.

[@TheBooban]

@@rutufn0596 eh? Only in some dirty countries. Most places is clean and you can drink it right out of the lake or stream.

[@pittyman]

3:35 just use a under pressure for extracting pure water from brime or salted water. Quite less expensive.

[@ConstantChaos1]

Even if this can only get us half way it makes a great precursors i love that you thought it was worth mentioning as such

[@keithnance4209]

This is very good news indeed and I’m wondering if the salinated brine solution can be pumped to a DLE system that can further collect Lithium 🤔

[@dewiz9596]

If one lived on the moon, one would be thinking about the cost of air, too. As with all “breakthroughs”. . . “interesting if true”. I’ll, as always, watch Dave to the end, and, I’m still subscribed So. . . essentially the thermocouple, but instead of the energy being used to produce electrical energy, that equivalent energy is used to remove salt.. While I don’t pretend to understand the exact process, I can see that the 2nd law of thermodynamics is NOT-being violated. So, yeah!

[@aniksamiurrahman6365]

Sounds very interesting.

[@ricklines8755]

Wow! So, kinda like a vortex tube that separates warmer air molecules from cooler ones. But totally different. But maybe not totally completely different. It will be really great to better understand why more concentrated aqueous ionic solutions are more attracted to higher or lower temperatures than less concentrated solutions.

[@thamiordragonheart8682]

These don't use very much electricity for the actual desalination, but they do need a LOT of input water. They also need a lot of heat input even if it is low temperature because the desalination is driven by thermal conduction across the water stream. It does have some advantages for robustness and I assume it's better than straight-up solar distillation, but I suspect a solar panel hooked up to a reverse osmosis system is still more efficient. If you have an excess of industrial waste heat, multi-effect flash distillation with waste heat recovery is probably still going to be the most capital-efficient way to use it because it's so simple. If you really want to push efficiency with waste heat, there's already vacuum membrane distillation, which can also be staged and is a reasonably mature technology, though not very widespread. I think high-efficiency wastewater recycling (also usually using reverse osmosis), and the high-volume batch and semi-batch reverse osmosis systems being developed right now to further increase reverse osmosis efficiency are much more exciting. Combining reverse osmosis with hydrothermal processing seems like it would be extremely efficient for wastewater recycling, and potentially extracting high-quality fertilizer as a byproduct.

[@Oatmeal_pdx]

Thanks for the informative video. I wonder if there is any work being done on using concentric solar power for water desalination. I imagine a few rings of mirrors that focus the light from the sun onto a reservoir in the middle to bring the water to a boil and collect the steam. Perhaps several 'hives' per plant. Maybe even generate some power as a side effect too that can be used for the pumps. Yeah it needs a lot of land space but in a desert, why not? thoughts?

[@701983]

Too complicated and costly compared to a simple solar distill (evaporation basin with glass cover) with roughly the same yield per solar area. You don't have to boil the water, if you can spread it over a big area for effective evaporation.

[@701983]

But there is some work regarding using concentrated solar as an (additional) heat source for thermal desalination plants (MSF, multi-stage flash). Which are much more than just simple distills, like pictured at 2:55. MSF desalination plants use vacuum to recover and reuse condensation heat very efficiently. They are tens times more efficient than simple distills.

[@AlfaStation1]

Some studies suggest large parts of the usa and europe will run out of fresh underground water in as little as a decade, due to overconsumption of water for growing crops and raising cattle. It has taken thousands of years for these underground reservoirs to fill but are now being pumped dry at a staggering rate. Maybe look into that?