Re: [gardeners] Water, was desalization
George Shirley (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Thu, 10 Aug 2000 18:52:44 -0500
Lake Baikul is also in serious danger from years of polluting industry as the
former Evil Empire tried to keep up with the Western World. Saw a show that said
they had fresh water seals there, a remnant from pre-Ice Age days. Interesting
lake and an interesting documentary.
George
Margaret Lauterbach wrote:
>
> At 08:38 PM 08/09/2000 -0500, you wrote:
> >They do do it for large cities. When we lived in Saudi Arabia all of our water
> >came from a large desal plant about 30 kilometers from where we lived. It
> >produced about 10 million gallons a day from water from the Red Sea. It didn't
> >use reverse osmosis though, that's only practical in small systems IIRC. The
> >plant was built by Mitsubishi and utilized flash evaporation, ie superheated
> >boilers. The steam was then condensed, cooled and put into the big tanks and
> >then to the pipes to where it was needed. The salt and other minerals remained
> >behind and were flushed back into the sea by the next load of water brought in
> >through standard filters. Since the Red Sea is about 10 percent more
> >saline than
> >the other oceans and seas it didn't make much difference. Note: There are NO
> >fresh water streams running into the Red Sea at all.
> >
> >Flash evaporation on that scale is expensive unless you own half the oil
> >in the
> >world. Many home filters run on reverse osmosis.
> >
> >George, still posting via the archives
>
> On the subject of water, a scientist-friend is going on a tour to Lake
> Baikul in Siberia later this month. He says it contains 20 or 25% (I forget
> which) of the fresh water on the planet. The more I think about that, the
> more astonished I am. Margaret L, who wonders how long the straw would
> have to be...