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▲ drysine 16 hours ago

> We'll develop mass production de-salinification plants and have enough water.

And then you'll have the brine problem.

▲dml2135 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Can you explain this problem for those unfamiliar?

▲grvdrm 16 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I'm asking naively and honestly: is there a solution to brine? Believe it's pumped directly back into ocean at the moment.

▲tomrod 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Brine is probably very valuable.

If we make it a slurry, perhaps we could use it to pump to unpopulated areas with endorheic lakes like the Salt Lake or Salton Sea, then mine and refine the resulting slurry.[0]

The concern is the brine getting into the atmosphere -- that can likely be mitigated.

[0] https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/gold.html

▲throwup238 15 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Desal plants use static mixers to mix the brine with a bunch of ocean water and pump it back out. The specifics depend on the local ecology and ocean currents but it’s a matter of making the outfall pipes long enough (they’re kilometers long usually).

▲TrapLord_Rhodo 13 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

brine can be used for mineral extraction.

▲tills13 9 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I'm guessing there's local ecology issues with this? Groundwater seepage, etc. Though that hasn't really stopped fracking so maybe it'll just be a non-issue at the policy level.

▲horrible-hilde 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

and storing cheese

▲giorgioz 15 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Two step forwards one step back. Doesn't mean the step back made the two step forward not good. I was not familiar with the concept of brine. I thought we would extract the salt from the water and store it. Maybe use it for construction material like with the CO2 extracted from the atmosphere. I'm not an expert and I might have the Dunning-Kruger effect on this. It might be a lot harder than I can imagine/know at this moment but it might still be worth it and necessary.