Why Not Build Desalination Plants EVERYWHERE?

When my daughter was 10 years old, she asked me if they were able to make drinking water from seawater. I said yes, but it is more expensive than just starting with fresh water. So she replied, "Oh, so they are just going to use all the fresh water first and then be forced to desalination!" I think she was correct.

While in the US NAVY the ship that I served on was nuclear powered. We used the reactors heat to distill sea water for the ships reactor coolant and drinking water, plus equipment coolant as sell. We never went on water rations. The best way to get electricity and fresh water is to build small nuclear power plants and have desalination plants next to the electric generators. Win win. Nuclear reactor technology had come a very long way since the 60's. Safer, simpler and cheaper to operate and maintain.

For years I thought we should pump water from high rain and flooding areas to dry out areas. I knew it would be very expensive, but I thought it would be worth it. I’m very glad that you are pursuing this idea and thinking of imaginative ways of reducing the cost like using existing pipe lines. Thank you for your work.

I love this video! Thanks a million! I was in the military and when I went to the middle east, I observed how many desalinization plants they had. My question was...why does the rest of the world not fall in line with this idea and advance the technology to make it feasible? I would like to think there are many likeminded people such as yourself that can make this a larger scale reality. Great stuff! Thanks! I am a subscriber now!

As a chemical engineer working in a desalination station in Kuwait, my dream and goal in life is to bring the dome technology to Kuwait and all around the world. The neom project looks like heaven to me and id love nothing more than to be a part of it

Our company was one of the first thin film composite reverse osmosis design engineering, manufacturer, installation companies. We created the drinking water from the red sea and made the desert bloom. However the key was to remove all the microscopic life in sea water prior to separation the salty water. Many companies dropped the ball on pretreatment requirement and their plants failed long term. Fresh water and conservation reusability can solve humanities water needs.

It s the first video of the channel that i watch. Finally a good channel where i can dig in the old videos. New subscriber. Keep going bro

Brine could easily be repurposed for regions that use salt on the roads. Brine is great. It actually sticks to the surface you apply it too and coats way more. Salt lands in random spots. Brine gives you a solid consistent coat.

Desalination plants should have been built many years ago but sadly a majority of our society is reactive and not proactive. This video was very insightful, thank you for the excellent presentation.

In Australia most major cities have desalination plants as a back up for times of drought. Melbourne Australia has one of the largest desalination plants in the world.

This video feels more like a marketing campaign for the city rather than an analysis as to why there aren't more desalination plants. The actual answer to the question was said in 10 seconds with no real dive into it. The Neom project sounds like another one of those model city plans that will ultimately fail because it relies on other systems which offset everything good that is done by the project. How can we ensure that removing these elements from the ocean is fine to do? How can you ensure that you don't remove too much water from the sea? How will this affect its biochemistry? Very little science was presented in this video and I am even skeptical even on what was presented. Is the Neom project the future of desalination? Who knows, because this guy sure doesn't. No specifics about the technology is discussed, just empty words and marketing terms.

Really appreciate the explanation which helped me better understand why there isn't more movement in that direction. I appreciate the downsides and perhaps more focus would lend to some better solutions. To me, the bottom line is what other solutions can take us into the future? There are other that options that currently contribute on a relatively small scale overall. IF the drought doesn't diminish, what else is there to accommodate for the demands for water in the next 30 years?

Nice strategy I must say. I don't earn as much as this video claims but I earn about 3,250 USD from Hyperion Trust every week. However, I've read articles of investors that made as much as $350K profit within a few months I'd like to know what you think he invested in and how do i make such profit

I was surprised to learn of all the other elements besides salt in ocean water. It makes sense to harvest those elements, especially thorium.

I currently live in the Mojave Desert, and the very recent hydrological history of this area has made me often think that everyone is looking at desalination, energy generation, and energy storage incorrectly. We tend to look at all of these as separate issues, but in fact the combination of them would be an excellent way to reduce the costs of each individually. For instance, where I live there are many dry lakebeds scattered around the desert, some of which like Owens Lake were once large persistent inland bodies of water within the last century. Combining those dry/nearly dry lakes (many of which are salty already with the desalination process seems like an excellent way to solve virtually all the issues of desalination and the problem of solar energy storage via the following approach: 1. Massive solar farms with a large excess of day generating capacity power the Southwestern US grid. Some of this power is used to pump large volumes of raw sea water inland to currently dry or hypersaline lakebeds in the Mojave Desert, filling them and turning them into inland reservoirs of sea-water. 2. Large reverse osmosis desalination plants are constructed near these lakes, possibly underground to reduce the visual impact of the plants, taking advantage of the fact that these areas are not current wet-lands areas to speed up the process. Some of the solar power generated every day is used to produce an excess of desalinated water with these plants. Brine is returned to the salt lakes, or processed solar thermally to remove remaining water and recover raw materials (like your video talks about). 3. A portion of the desalinated water sufficient to meet the needs of regional water users is returned to the cities and towns of the Southwest via existing distribution systems, or additional infrastructure (for pumping toward the Colorado river and beyond). The rest of the desalinated water is pumped into massive inland pumped hydro systems constructed in the currently arid but topographically ideal areas of the Mojave Desert. There are areas out there where elevation differences of thousands of feet can be within a few miles of each-other, with more than enough area to accommodate lakes large enough to provide energy storage for the entire area over extended durations. 4. The combined costs of the entire system are then distributed across both water and power for regional consumers. Furthermore, mineral extraction may also help with the costs as suggested in your video. Furthermore, the renewal of large inland bodies of water will replenish the ground water supply, over time, possibly increase regional rainfall, and lead to further regional groundwater benefit if LADWP and other large Southwestern water users no longer take water from the Colorado River, Northern California, and the entire Owens River valley area. This isn't a global solution, but generally in areas where desalination is needed these other factors are present as well (deserts with dry lakes and large available solar capacity).

I feel like desalination is important, and honestly, I don’t know fresh water was such a scarce resource. I also think in concert with water reclamation processes from rain and other natural cycles could help. An “all hands on deck” approach. Thanks for sharing this information!

I think that you left out a major and minor advantages about solar evaporation: 1) use solar to boil, not just evaporate salt water. Use the steam to generate electricity. 2) let the leftover steam rise to a height to allow gravity to move it. 3) as mentioned, derivatives could pay for the desalination. Sites around the world evaporate sea water to get salt. Put these two together and sea salt out one side and water out the other.

Thank you for the video. In the submarine service we distilled seawater while underway. This water was used for consumption, the galley, showers, the laundry, and a variety of other purposes. Of course, it helped, having a nuclear power plant to produce the required energy. I remember only one time when water restrictions were called for and that was brief. A side note: being submerged for extended periods of time, we also produced Oxygen from seawater through a couple different methods.

Such ambitious large-scale projects makes me excited!

Thank you for a most informative program…keep up the good work, stay healthy, forget the razor and continue to watch out for yourself and others…