Carey.Vierra+2010

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WATER DESALINATION

= The world is changing and will one day change the way that everything on this planet lives and breathes. Due to human interaction and development, we have rapidly changed the climate of the earth. The burning of fossil fuels which are becoming more and more scares, have been building up in the atmosphere trapping the suns powerful rays and warming the planet. According to NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies the world average temperature has risen 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit since 1880. The earths poles are being affected the most and the ice glaciers are disappearing quickly. Once the ice starts to melt the rest of it melts even quicker due to the smaller surface area for the sun to land on. The ice at the poles is a major source of fresh water on the planet. When this source of   water evaporates it will not come back anytime soon. The problem with the shortage of water is that it is the single most important thing to a human’s survival. The human body can only last about one to two days without water and needs at least two quarts of water a day. ( [] )

The driving force in this situation is the emission of green house gases into the atmosphere. There have been many advances in the past 150 years mainly due to the knowledge that we have gained about such problems. There use to be no regulations on fuel efficiency or dumping of CFC devices. Now the population has been informed about the damage that common products due to the environment and there has been legislation passed to regulate the destruction of these products.

There are many people who feel that Global Warming is a major problem facing not only the United States but the world. The President of the United States, Barrack Obama, has said that he will do anything he can to pass the bill for higher standards for fuel emission and consumption. There is also ongoing research to help with the future water problem. It is called water desalinization.

Water desalinization is the process of making sea water into fresh water good enough to drink. This is a huge achievement because of the fact that sea water makes up over ninety-five percent of all water on the planet. The water desalinization systems use the fact that fresh water will go through a membrane to try to get to saltwater and they reverse the effects by pressurizing the salt water. The first thing that happens is that salt water is sucked into the desalinization machine where it goes through a sea strainer which collects all major solids including, seaweed, plants, animal life, etc. After it goes through the sea strainer it then gets pressurized to thirty pounds per square inch and is pushed through multiple strainers going from cores to fine. The water is then sent to an oil-water separator which removes all oil and liquid impurities from the water. After all the oil has been removed it is sent to the high pressure pump which gives the water the needed pressure to pass through the permeable membrane. The last step is to go through a gage that measures the salt content of the water and if it passes it is sent to a tank where the water is kept.

The procedure of turning salt water into drinkable fresh water is a costly set up and produces 1.78kg of CO2 per m3 of produced water (http://waterweek.wordpress.com/2007/09/25/power-hungry-seawater-desalination-adds-to-co2-emissions-reverse-osmosis-at-178kg-of-co2m3-clear-winner-over-thermal-distillation). The machines themselves use up a lot of energy and might not be the most efficient thing to do.

The amount of water that can be purified by these machines outweighs the disadvantage of energy use. One water desalinization machine can produce up to 100,000 gallons of fresh drinkable water per day. This is a substantial amount and can help areas where there is not a lot of fresh water to survive. This could produce enough drinking water for 150,000 people.

The best aspect of water desalinization is the fact that when all fresh water runs out we can use the earth’s biggest asset, the oceans, to help with the problem. This also cures the problem that scientists have been predicting about rising ocean levels, if we can take enough water from the ocean then the ocean level will not rise.

Water desalination has environmental risks. The open water intakes for the water cause the death of many oceanic animals. Fish eggs, plankton, and fish larvae. The Clean Water Act prevents these desalination plants from using these open water intakes in hope of preventing marine casualties. Another environmental concern is the pollution of the ocean when the concentrated brine is returned to the ocean. This brings up the salinity levels within the ocean. The ecosystem on the ocean bed suffers from this because the brine is much denser than the water. Desalination can be partnered with power plants to make the process even more efficient. It is very efficient to use the nuclear reactors of the power plants to make clean potable water. Desalination is a very expensive process and it will only work for affluent countries with close proximity to the oceans. Countries that are not near oceans and are poor are the countries that seem to have water problems. Even though this is a great solution for rich and countries with the resource of the ocean, it does not attack the problem of lack of water in poor landlocked countries. Recycling water is far more efficient because it does not have as many toxins in the water that need to be removed. This is the alternative to desalination in cities such as El Paso, TX and Scottsdale, AZ. Though it is more cost effective to recycle water on a small scale. It is more efficient to desalinize water on a very large scale.

Desalination makes up a large part of the worlds water output. It is used all over the world, except in the poor and landlocked countries. It makes up a large part of the worlds water output. The desalinized water is used in many American homes. It is used in places that are very dry, but have access to the ocean.

Water Desalination is a large part of the world’s water output, but still could be producing much larger amounts of water for the world. Desalination is still a resource of water that many countries still have yet to tap into. Poor island nations could use this as a source of water, but do not have the money to build and support desalination plants. It is not extremely cost effective and is expensive to run. To run these plants it is required to have some sort of educated engineers. The cost of desalination is expensive and a lot of the world cannot afford it.

 "If we could ever competitively, at a cheap rate, get fresh water from salt water, that it would be in the long-range interests of humanity which would really dwarf any other scientific accomplishments." --John F. Kennedy, 1962 JFK discusses how desalination is the future of providing water. He discusses that desalination is a great technique for saving mankind from drought.

"Larry Dozier, deputy general manager of the Central Arizona Project and one of the people working on the seven-state proposal, said cloud seeding is only a stopgap solution and not one that could cover all (water) shortages in dry years. He wants the states to explore even more innovative ideas, such as building a water desalination plant on the Gulf of California." --"Colorado River states look for ways to stretch water supply"   The Associated Press (December 14, 2005) This quote is about how to feed the interior states with water. Desalination is the answer to feed inland water needs. This could be the answer to the poor landlocked countries that need water. If the more affluent countries on the coast could desalinate water and pump it inland it would solve a large portion of the water crisis in these countries

“Ten years ago, desalination was the crazy aunt in the attic. That's changed. It is now entering the mainstream and being taken seriously.” --Barry Nelson, Natural Resources Defense Council, 2003 Water desalination was once a joke. It was not cost efficient and was not producing enough water. With the technology of today it is producing water much more efficiently and is producing much more of it.

Desalination of seawater helps solve the world’s water crisis. Places in the world do not have enough water to feed their people and grow sufficient crops. Desalination will take seawater and turn seawater into potable water for people to use to drink and grow crops. Though it produces water it also produces greenhouse gasses. This situation is a win-lose situation

To maximize efficiency for water desalination it is best to desalinize water on a large scale. If more plants were built to desalinize water and more water was produced from these plants it would be one of the best ways to satisfy the world’s water crisis. Piping to internal countries who need water would also help the world’s water crisis. More plants would make this dream reality. Water desalination needs to be done on a much larger scale for it to make a very large impact on the water crisis that the world faces today.

Countries such as Israel, China, India, Pakistan, Australia, Bermuda, The United States, and Saudi Arabia desalinize water. These countries are wealthier countries that have some access to the world’s oceans. Poor countries cannot afford to desalinize water. It is a very expensive process that few countries can afford. Desalination of water is only used in these countries, but should be used all around the world for a means of producing potable water.

After learning about water desalination, I would like the world to produce water by desalination on a much larger scale to make it much more cost efficient. If we produced water this way we could aid the need for water in countries that have little water to drink and to produce crops. By producing water on a larger scale it becomes more cost efficient for poorer countries to use this method of purifying water.