Deep-Sea Desalination Pulls Fresh Water from the Depths
11 days ago
- #desalination
- #water-scarcity
- #sustainability
- Global cities are facing water shortages, with demand expected to outpace supply in the next five years.
- Subsea desalination is a new approach that removes salt from deep seawater to address water scarcity.
- Traditional desalination methods like reverse osmosis are energy-intensive, but subsea desalination uses natural deep-sea pressure to reduce energy use.
- Companies like Flocean are developing subsea desalination systems that save 40-50% energy compared to land-based plants.
- Deep-sea environments offer stable conditions, fewer microorganisms, and less need for chemical pretreatment.
- Challenges include high costs, the need to pump desalinated water from great depths, and potential environmental impacts on marine life.
- Subsea desalination requires steep coastal drop-offs; shallow shelves increase costs with long pipelines.
- Government contracts and financial partnerships are crucial for scaling subsea desalination, but the industry is hesitant to adopt new technologies.
- Experts believe subsea desalination could eventually supply entire cities, but large-scale adoption may take a decade or more.