How Does a Salt Pond Work?

[@mazelme]

Thank You!!! I found you several months ago and subscribed immediately after the first video I watched. I am learning a lot from you. I only wish my college professors (or even my HS teachers) were as good at explaining things as you are. I am enjoy your content as much as I enjoy learning in general. And a BIG thank you for not shamelessly monetizing the heck out of these videos. Maybe that will still be the case when you have hundreds of thousands, even millions of subs??? You would deserve to earn a little back by then, of course. As longs as the contents remains this high quality it would still be worth it. Thank you!!

[@engmohamedsalah4086]

Great Job Professor

[@ralphsammis7330]

I would like to learn more detail on the absorption layer between supersalinated & fresh water - mixture? How proportionally thick?

[@ralphsammis7330]

What about putting a see through cover over the pond - & regulating valve openings tapping heat exchange pipes for rate of heat transfer. Acetate cover.

[@djjazzyjeff1232]

That's what I was thinking, what if you just either put it in a building with a glass/plexiglass roof, or simply have a sort of clear "lid." Does that not work for some reason, and then when it's time to maintain your system is it not just as simple as Windexing the glass ?

[@840kat]

I was wondering the same thing

[@alimoharek1027]

Thanks for your useful information 👍

[@juanolotgn]

Would a transparent film on top help with dirt getting into the system? Can you hold that insulating layer of water in place there forever?

[@illinoisenergyprof6878]

The film would get dirty instead and that would block even more light. If dirt gets into the pond, it may settle out on the bottom. On the film, it would always stay there. Also, the film would block some of the lights rays -- particularly the highest energy which is what we want the most. Also, so light reflects off of it -- maybe more than would reflect off the water. A good thing is that it would provide an evaporation barrier, so the pond would not need refilling as often.... Don't think that outweighs the dirt issue though. Good try -- keep thinking!

[@onetwothree4148]

And you'd get a green layer of life trying to grow under that film too

[@michaelfoye1135]

@@illinoisenergyprof6878 What do you think about rotating fresnel lenses over the pond? The lenses will magnify the amount of light delivered to the pond, making it feasible in less optimal solar environments. Swapping in opaque material in lieu of the lense will allow for managing the temperature profile of the pond. Condensation can be routinely wiped away as the lense panels are rotated on a carousel. The system also becomes a sealed system, which is relatively immune to particulate matter contamination. Running a thermal energy conversion system can optimize energy production. So Solar Pond Thermal Energy Conversion SPTEC. ? If I am correct it would be useful in a much wider range of locations too.

[@rj5848]

@@illinoisenergyprof6878 why don't we place series of convex lenses which converge the light on certain points , or if feasibility is high we can place a large convex lens which acts like a lid on the pond and we can make it to rotate on its axis which produces a tornado effect on the water and we can then converge the light rays on the eye of the tornado and connect a pipe through that eye region so every unit hot water gets absorbed directly.

[@rj5848]

@@michaelfoye1135 I just realized I typed something similar but coming from a more basic understanding anyway i support the idea which you presented it should help I believe.

[@jaystone3730]

What about filtering the fresh water layer at a speed just fast enough to get the dirt out before it settled but not so fast as to disturb the layers? Maybe a larger volume of water being filtered at a time

[@AtlasReburdened]

If they only had to maintain it once a year then it seems like there's a possible scheme for handling that maintenance continuously and possibly just using the power in the heat. I'm imagining thin pipes, spaced a few feet apart running parallel horizontally through somewhere in the the gradient layer, the top of the fresh layer, and the (near)bottom of the saturated layer. Water being slowly drawn in from the gradient layer, filtered, partially distilled, and slowly returned as 100% fresh to the top and concentrated slat water to the salt layer. If done properly the dust getting into the top should eventually be drawn down by the replacement of fresh water and into filtration while constant replenishment of both layers should keep the multilayer structure intact. _Theoretically,_ that is. Also theoretically, that leaves your only major maintenance issues as large debris and silt accumulation in the intake pipes. I imagine that large debris can be gently fished out and the intahe pipes could potentially be just hooked to insulative hoses so they can be detached from whatever frame holds them in place and drawn out for back flushing. Who knows, maybe I'm a fool and there's no magic flow rate that will catch all the dust without destroying the layer structure, or maybe you have some other hole you see in the schema, but to me it sounds half decent. If I had the means I'd test it on a decent scale.

[@840kat]

That was cool. Ty!

[@chair547]

how do you boil that much water?

[@aleksandrsnaumovs4277]

I don't get it...I get the blocking of the convective loops. But water is a good conductor. The hot bottom layer simply conducts it's heat to the top most layer which then cools as usual. What am i missing? Also, how does adding salt affect the speciffic heat capacity of water? Is there something to be gained (heat storage wise) in supersaturating water?

[@jimmurphy6095]

By using a concentrated brine for the lower layer, you've essentially created another type of solution with different properties. Density being the most critical. The difference is enough to keep the convection cycles separated, due to the gradient layer. I'm sure there is some heat escaping, but nowhere near what there would be in a single-state solution.

[@stanislavdimitrov8800]

The key is in the gradient. I’m no expert but judging by the video, there’s less thermal transfer between layers that have a very small temperature difference, and you have many such layers, because it’s a gradient.

[@AbhishekKumar-fr4ir]

Water is practically opaque to infrared spectrum of light which is around 50 percent of the solar radiation reaching the earth's surface.. uv is scattered...which part of the solar spectrum is responsible for the heating at the bottom ??

[@Austinsairplanes]

How does your writing surface work? If you were to writing on a pane of glass your writing world be reversed on the other side.

[@YSoreil]

He flips the video afterwards, he doesn't actually write backwards. Pretty clever trick.

[@stanislavdimitrov8800]

@@YSoreil so we’re not looking at him but his flipped self 🙂. In real life his facial features would be different. I feel tricked!

[@edpiv2233]

Had to thumb down bc you are awesome. Sorry.

[@eeyespytran4988]

Why the contradiction