- cross-posted to:
- upliftingnews@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- upliftingnews@lemmy.world
It’s not -a lot- of electricity … a couple of thousand kWh per day. It’s also used to de-salinate ocean water … of which there’s plenty.
It’s not -a lot- of electricity … a couple of thousand kWh per day. It’s also used to de-salinate ocean water … of which there’s plenty.
Combine salt and water to create electricity to power a desalination plant that removes salt from water. I am sure there is more to it, but the article sounds like it’s one of those mad perpetual free energy schemes that defy the laws of physics.
If they’re mostly using electricity or even combustion to evaporate the water (as opposed to sunlight), there’s no chance that the concentrated saltwater creates more electricity than it costs - it’s only maybe useful if the saltwater is actually a waste product.
They’re using brine from a reverse osmosis plans and wastewater, so yes, that is indeed the case.
Far cry from “perpetual free energy scheme”, though.
I don’t think anyone claimed it was.
It seems like every other top level reply in this thread is people poking holes in it based on their personal speculation about the details.
It’s the misleading “generated” electricity headline. It just re-captures some of the spent energy to be slightly more efficient.
They are just re-capturing some of the energy the system spent turning salt water into fresh. Because that results in extremely salty brine water waste, you can get some energy as it gets diluted back down to sea water concentration.
There no “new” energy in the system, it’s just wasting less.
Isn’t efficiency just getting closer and closer to a perpetual machine? Using science and the physics to the absolute limit!