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Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumIsrael has a novel problem; an excess of fresh water
The country faces a previously unfathomable question: What to do with its extra water?
Enter desalination. The Ashkelon plant, in 2005, provided 127 million cubic meters (166 million cubic yards) of water. Hadera, in 2009, put out another 140 million cubic meters (183 million cubic yards). And now Sorek, 150 million cubic meters (196 million cubic yards). All told, desal plants can provide some 600 million cubic meters (785 million cubic yards) of water a year, and more are on the way.
The Sea of Galilee is fuller. Israels farms are thriving. And the country faces a previously unfathomable question: What to do with its extra water?
Inside Sorek, 50,000 membranes enclosed in vertical white cylinders, each 4 feet high and 16 inches wide, are whirring like jet engines. The whole thing feels like a throbbing spaceship about to blast off. The cylinders contain sheets of plastic membranes wrapped around a central pipe, and the membranes are stippled with pores less than a hundredth the diameter of a human hair. Water shoots into the cylinders at a pressure of 70 atmospheres and is pushed through the membranes, while the remaining brine is returned to the sea.
Desalination used to be an expensive energy hog, but the kind of advanced technologies being employed at Sorek have been a game changer. Water produced by desalination costs just a third of what it did in the 1990s. Sorek can produce a thousand liters of drinking water for 58 cents. Israeli households pay about US$30 a month for their water similar to households in most U.S. cities, and far less than Las Vegas (US$47) or Los Angeles (US$58).
Enter desalination. The Ashkelon plant, in 2005, provided 127 million cubic meters (166 million cubic yards) of water. Hadera, in 2009, put out another 140 million cubic meters (183 million cubic yards). And now Sorek, 150 million cubic meters (196 million cubic yards). All told, desal plants can provide some 600 million cubic meters (785 million cubic yards) of water a year, and more are on the way.
The Sea of Galilee is fuller. Israels farms are thriving. And the country faces a previously unfathomable question: What to do with its extra water?
Inside Sorek, 50,000 membranes enclosed in vertical white cylinders, each 4 feet high and 16 inches wide, are whirring like jet engines. The whole thing feels like a throbbing spaceship about to blast off. The cylinders contain sheets of plastic membranes wrapped around a central pipe, and the membranes are stippled with pores less than a hundredth the diameter of a human hair. Water shoots into the cylinders at a pressure of 70 atmospheres and is pushed through the membranes, while the remaining brine is returned to the sea.
Desalination used to be an expensive energy hog, but the kind of advanced technologies being employed at Sorek have been a game changer. Water produced by desalination costs just a third of what it did in the 1990s. Sorek can produce a thousand liters of drinking water for 58 cents. Israeli households pay about US$30 a month for their water similar to households in most U.S. cities, and far less than Las Vegas (US$47) or Los Angeles (US$58).
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/israel-proves-the-desalination-era-is-here/
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Israel has a novel problem; an excess of fresh water (Original Post)
pscot
Jul 2016
OP
citood
(550 posts)1. Perhaps California should re-evaluate desalination
Ghost Dog
(16,881 posts)2. Of course. Solar-powered. n/t
pscot
(21,024 posts)3. IDE has built a desal plant in Southern California
The International Desalination Association claims that 300 million people get water from desalination, and that number is quickly rising. IDE, the Israeli company that built Ashkelon, Hadera and Sorek, recently finished the Carlsbad desalination plant in Southern California, a close cousin of its Israel plants, and it has many more in the works. Worldwide, the equivalent of six additional Sorek plants are coming online every year. The desalination era is here
mountain grammy
(26,622 posts)4. California?
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)5. Much of Syria's problems...
started with their record drought. Maybe they could pipe some over.
nationalize the fed
(2,169 posts)6. k&r If the US wasn't spending ~$200 MILLION DOLLARS A DAY
chasing a bunch of bearded rebels around sand dunes 8,000 miles away, maybe it could have more nice things.
http://costofwar.com
How many desalination plants could be built for ONE DAY OF WAR SPENDING?