Is this idea impossible????

[Billy T]

...Max is in fact no longer with us. I have no idea whose decision it was. I always regarded him as the Devil's Advocate and felt that he was simply reminding us that the attitudes he pretended to support are out there and we need to deal with them. But many other people thought he was just a big jerk.

I liked THE BARON. Yes, he was frequently crude in his posts, but never false or just being politically correct. He had a real POV and sometimes a good point to make, which more conventional POVs overlooked.

I can not be sure, but think he was often sincere in some things I strongly opposed him in - especially his support of local funding of school in contrast for my desire to see all have equal oportunity for a good education. (We could discuss this as I was not basing my POV on some liberal "do gooders" morality - that made him sick - but on the economic damage the loss of good brains causes, especially when instead of making society better, they are used to deal drugs etc. without getting caught.)

If he is just banded, and still walking around above ground - I am strongly for lifting that ban.

 

[Sciencelovah]

I understand that to build and operate the drinking water treatment plants as has
been described in this thread (e.g. desalination through distillation or through reverse
osmosis membrane) are very costly, and addition to that, it needs massive pipelines
network.

Assuming (just an assumption..!) that in the future there will be much less
costly process, can the pipelines network be replaced by canal? (Whether
canal less costly then pipelines?).

I refer to this interesting article about The Red Sea and the Mediterranean
Dead Sea canals project:
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchiv...Red Sea and the Mediterranean Dead Sea canals

 

[Fraggle Rocker]

I liked THE BARON. Yes, he was frequently crude in his posts, but never false or just being politically correct. He had a real POV and sometimes a good point to make, which more conventional POVs overlooked. If he is just banded, and still walking around above ground - I am strongly for lifting that ban.

I have determined that he was not banned. He just stopped posting.

 

[madanthonywayne]

It will work. In fact there is a great below sea level depression near the Med sea in the Sahara desert. More than 40 years ago I read a study of using it as you suggest to generate electric power. It was economicall feasible back then and certainly is now, but the capital investment is large and not much of a market is readily available. The lack of political stability was also a deterent to actually doing it.

That depresion is so large and deep that a good hydramic head is available for many centuries as the brine lake will expand to make a large surface which soon stablizes in altitude well below sea level, just becoming salter for at least a 1000 years if 10 megawatt power plant is continuosuly operating (not sure these were the values of the study), but a very big power plant can run for more than 1000 years (It will need rebuilding about 40 or 50 times before the lake fills with undisolved salt.)

That's a fascinating idea. How big do you think the inland sea would ultimately be? I'd think a large body of water, even salt water, would have a beneficial effect on the local climate as well.

PS Baron has left before. He'll probably be back.

 

[Billy T]

That's a fascinating idea. How big do you think the inland sea would ultimately be? I'd think a large body of water, even salt water, would have a beneficial effect on the local climate as well.
...

I do not remember details, even what country(s) it is in. Some one good at searching ought to be able to find elivation conture data on the Sarha to located the depresion. A lake within the conture approximately 15 meters below sea level should still be economically adequate for power production. Pehaps they should make aluminium there as then a local market would not be needed.

By the way, when the lake does fill with undisolve salt and the power production stops, you sell salt for few hundred years more. Long before the power production stops, the lake will be saturated - very strong brine in that warm climate - so you produce chlorine and sell it or aluminium, which ever "exports" the electric energy with more profit. - That is obvious, but I forgot to mention that salt sales might even recover the cost of the power and aluminium / chlorine plants after they shut down.

Your correct in that the H2O evaporated and returned as rain would be a value of the project, but probably not part of its ecconomics. Few know that the Saraha was once a great forest. Not sure, but think man and his domestication of the goat abolished it. If modern man could restore that forest, perhaps "carbon credits" could be part of the economics. Reviving this old idea (with the Al/Cl* improvement I have suggested here) may be one of the few ways to help control man's contribution to global warming that actually yields a profit. - Sugar cane alcohol is another.
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*I think the Cl production via electrolysis also yields Na but it, I believe, does not contribute to the economics. Perhaps because it is too easily oxidized? A famous professor at JHU about 100 years ago would occasionally dress in black and take some Na, protected under oil, into the poor areas of Baltimore and toss small pieces into puddles. - Not sure of the chemistry (perhaps even this legend is false) but that will cause a flame on the surface of the water (so the legend has it). I think that was R. W. Wood.