WEBVTT - How Desalination Works 0:00:00.720 --> 0:00:03.880 Welcome to you Stuff you should know from House Stuff 0:00:03.920 --> 0:00:12.240 Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:15.640 Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant and guest producer. No, 0:00:16.320 --> 0:00:21.760 so this is stuff you should know, Stuff you should know. Yeah, 0:00:22.040 --> 0:00:24.000 Neil has been waiting for that one for a month. 0:00:24.440 --> 0:00:27.320 That's right, Well you got it, know finally. How do 0:00:27.360 --> 0:00:33.640 you feel? It feels great? Just woke me up? Uh? 0:00:33.760 --> 0:00:36.959 Are you're doing okay? I'm doing fine, sir. I think 0:00:37.000 --> 0:00:39.639 we need more air circulation in this place, in our 0:00:39.760 --> 0:00:42.880 new little Uh. It makes you LOGI makes me logi? 0:00:43.159 --> 0:00:49.239 What's logi? Josh? Just mimic being tired? Okay, A right, 0:00:49.600 --> 0:00:52.200 I've never heard that. Is that a real word logi? 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:57.240 Or is it some Internet short for something much older 0:00:57.240 --> 0:01:03.840 than that? Okay, keep hello? And what I don't know something? Uh, 0:01:04.240 --> 0:01:08.679 it's something g I. That's first of balls you're thinking of? Yeah, 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:11.520 I don't know what any of the little internet shorthand is. 0:01:11.560 --> 0:01:13.440 I always have to look that stuff up when someone 0:01:13.520 --> 0:01:16.320 leaves a comment. Um, have you heard of first of balls? 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:21.160 Instead of first of all? It's now first of bulls? 0:01:21.880 --> 0:01:23.800 What just by leading us in? It's like first of all, 0:01:23.880 --> 0:01:29.720 blah blah blah. First of balls, what Yeah, that's just stupid. 0:01:30.160 --> 0:01:33.160 Now I'm at more of the acronyms like fomo and 0:01:33.600 --> 0:01:36.440 oh yeah, I have to I never know what those are. 0:01:36.560 --> 0:01:40.400 We're getting aged. We think first of alls is stupid. 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:42.839 We have to look at acronyms. I look up fomo 0:01:43.560 --> 0:01:46.400 if you're missing out by the way, Oh, is that 0:01:46.480 --> 0:01:48.800 what that is? Yeah? I had to look up that. 0:01:49.360 --> 0:01:51.240 When I was watching Broad City. One of them said that, 0:01:51.280 --> 0:01:53.960 and I was like, what's fomo? I gotta I gotta 0:01:54.040 --> 0:01:56.080 keep the old internet handy when I watch those young 0:01:56.160 --> 0:01:59.120 kids shows. That shows pretty funny. Yeah, it's one. It's 0:01:59.160 --> 0:02:01.280 my favorite comment the out right. Now. I think I'm 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:04.960 really really enjoy it. I just posted today, in fact, 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:08.280 on our Facebook page, a great to New Yorker article 0:02:08.440 --> 0:02:10.760 on Abbey and Allana. Nice because you know how that 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:15.280 the New Yorker does it, They do it great in depth. Yeah, 0:02:15.440 --> 0:02:17.760 you know, you feel like I never have to read 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:21.240 another article again about the ladies of Broad City. When 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:23.920 the New Yorker does it, it stays done. That's I 0:02:23.960 --> 0:02:27.799 think their masked head, is it. Yeah, the New Yorker, 0:02:27.840 --> 0:02:30.360 when we do it, it stays done. I've read at 0:02:30.440 --> 0:02:35.560 New Yorker article from that was still awesome about this 0:02:35.760 --> 0:02:39.320 band called the Shags. It was a super Orleans article 0:02:39.840 --> 0:02:43.600 at the Orchid thiefure Um. But it was about this 0:02:43.600 --> 0:02:48.000 this family band, a girl band called the Shags from 0:02:48.000 --> 0:02:51.720 the sixties. I've heard of them who, like I, didn't 0:02:51.720 --> 0:02:53.800 really learn to play their instruments, even though they practice 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:57.959 all the time. Yep, you're going to be a band. 0:02:58.800 --> 0:03:00.760 He tried to take him to the top as much 0:03:00.760 --> 0:03:04.240 as he could, even right. Yeah, yeah, I remember reading it. 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:06.520 That might have been the same article, but are super interesting. 0:03:06.560 --> 0:03:10.080 Our friend Van nostri And sent us the record. Oh okay, 0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:13.040 maybe that's what got me looking into it. The only 0:03:13.080 --> 0:03:16.520 problem is that he burned it on CD and like, like, 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:21.240 our computers don't have CD players mine? Does it home? Good? Yeah? 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:23.040 Well I need you to put it on the cloud. 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:25.239 You just come over listen to the Shags of the 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:29.000 Shags party. Wait, we're talking about illegal activities. We need 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:31.440 to buy the Shag album. I don't think it's still 0:03:31.480 --> 0:03:38.480 in print. Okay, Chuck, Yes, are you familiar with seawater? Yes? Uh, 0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:41.400 you know there's tons of it out there in the world. 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:45.440 That's right. As a matter of fact, chuckers. Seven point 0:03:45.520 --> 0:03:48.160 five percent of all the water and earth, and that's 0:03:48.200 --> 0:03:52.640 seventy of the Earth's surface area is water, right, Yeah, 0:03:53.440 --> 0:03:56.920 seven point five percent of that is saltwater sea water, 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:00.240 which is great. It's good for sailing on, its good 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:04.640 for swimming in, it's good for catching um porpoises in 0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:10.840 doing all sorts of cool stuff, right porpoise fishing expedition. Right. Um. 0:04:10.920 --> 0:04:16.880 The problem is it is terrible, horrible, unbearable for drinking. 0:04:18.000 --> 0:04:21.119 The reason why is because when you drink salt water, 0:04:21.880 --> 0:04:27.479 it messes with your body's homeostasis. Does this because salt 0:04:27.760 --> 0:04:33.600 is an electro light, just like they talk about in Um, 0:04:33.680 --> 0:04:35.560 what's that Mike Judge movie that I love that you 0:04:35.600 --> 0:04:41.680 don't like? Oh idiocricy idiocracy. Yeah, remember they water the 0:04:41.920 --> 0:04:44.880 crops with gatoring because it has electro lights. I do 0:04:45.040 --> 0:04:47.880 not like it. I love that movie. It's a medium 0:04:47.920 --> 0:04:51.920 for me. Okay. Um, When you have too many electrolytes 0:04:52.040 --> 0:04:58.520 or salts, for example, in your body, your body says, hey, cells, 0:04:58.600 --> 0:05:00.400 you've got a bunch of water, We've got too much 0:05:00.440 --> 0:05:03.200 salt outside of you. We need you to release some 0:05:03.279 --> 0:05:07.560 of your water to return the body to homeostasis. Well, 0:05:07.600 --> 0:05:10.560 if you have too much salt, yourselves purge themselves with 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:14.800 too much water in order to excrete the salt out 0:05:14.800 --> 0:05:18.000 of your body through urine. Right. Um. And once you 0:05:18.040 --> 0:05:21.279 do that, you dehydrate your kiddie's malfunction, your brain starts 0:05:21.320 --> 0:05:24.040 to go downhill, you get brain damage, and you ultimately 0:05:24.120 --> 0:05:27.560 die a terrible, horrible death from electrolyton balance. Yeah, and 0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:30.400 that's why when, um, if you were ever lost at sea, 0:05:30.520 --> 0:05:33.600 let's hope that never happens to anyone. But um, they 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:36.200 you do not drink the salt water. It would be 0:05:36.279 --> 0:05:39.919 very tempting because it's right there. Um, But they're not 0:05:40.000 --> 0:05:42.720 kidding when they say water water everywhere, and not a 0:05:42.800 --> 0:05:44.520 drop to drink. Yeah, I mean you will. You will 0:05:44.560 --> 0:05:47.520 die a quicker death if you start drinking that salt water. 0:05:47.960 --> 0:05:50.560 In fact, this has been like a problem for a 0:05:50.680 --> 0:05:54.520 very long time. Humans have lived in coastal areas for 0:05:54.880 --> 0:05:58.000 a long, long long time, even before civilization, long long 0:05:58.040 --> 0:06:00.920 long time. Yeah, so as far because I believe the 0:06:00.960 --> 0:06:05.520 Greeks in the second century BC wrote down ways of 0:06:05.600 --> 0:06:09.760 getting fresh water from saltwater because it's still water. Sure, 0:06:09.960 --> 0:06:11.520 you just have to figure out how to get the 0:06:11.560 --> 0:06:14.160 salt out of the water. And one of the best ways, 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:16.240 one of the earliest ways, and one of the ways. 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:18.880 It's still in use, although in much more high tech 0:06:19.000 --> 0:06:23.640 use is called solar still. Yeah, I guess a little 0:06:23.680 --> 0:06:28.560 bit more on the history Aristotle, Uh three BC, it 0:06:28.720 --> 0:06:31.479 was like, hey, we should desalinate water. So that's the 0:06:31.760 --> 0:06:36.720 zero two hundred, that'd be the fourth century BC. Okay, 0:06:37.000 --> 0:06:40.240 I was wrong. Uh. Plenty the elder, which we by 0:06:40.279 --> 0:06:42.719 the way, is there a younger? We just got some beer, 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:49.440 some plenty the elder. Yeah, thank you Dan, It was Dan, Dan, dude, 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:52.560 very much appreciated. I just can't get that stuff here. No, 0:06:52.839 --> 0:06:56.560 it's an extraordinarily rare beer. Uh dancing of some plenty 0:06:56.600 --> 0:06:58.760 the elder, So thanks for that. But plenty the elder 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:04.200 in Rome Uh also described seawater distillation, and in seventy 0:07:04.240 --> 0:07:09.880 a d Alexander of Afrodysseus also did so. About a 0:07:09.960 --> 0:07:12.240 hundred and thirty years later, and then there was a 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:16.800 French explorer named gen de Lrie. Who um did you 0:07:16.840 --> 0:07:22.920 like that? Who Um? In Fifi talked about desalination. James 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:25.560 Cook as well, so it's not a new thing. For 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:28.720 many years, humans have been able to look around and say, 0:07:29.920 --> 0:07:32.360 you want water, There's plenty of it. Let's just figure 0:07:32.400 --> 0:07:35.000 out a way to to make it not salty. Water 0:07:35.080 --> 0:07:39.160 water everywhere, and let's all have a drink. Yeah, which 0:07:39.200 --> 0:07:41.960 got me um thinking sort of later in the research, 0:07:42.120 --> 0:07:45.720 like why is the ocean salty to begin with? And 0:07:45.760 --> 0:07:47.480 I didn't really know until I looked it up. That 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:51.280 was a good question. Yeah. It turns out that salt 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:56.000 from the ocean comes from rocks here on Earth. It's 0:07:56.040 --> 0:07:58.600 not just out there in the ocean it Um. What 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:02.440 happens is it rains and then uh, it falls on 0:08:02.480 --> 0:08:05.400 the land and it contains carbon dioxide from the air, 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:08.880 and that makes the rain slightly acidic. So when it 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:11.520 hits the rocks, it's gonna break down that rock. Some 0:08:11.920 --> 0:08:17.400 creating ions, which we've talked about chemical particles that are charged, Yeah, 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:20.960 because they're missing an electron, that's right. Uh. And these 0:08:21.000 --> 0:08:25.360 ions are basically just carried into streams, which eventually into 0:08:25.440 --> 0:08:28.840 rivers and eventually into oceans, and along the way, a 0:08:28.840 --> 0:08:32.440 lot of them are used up by organisms. Um, but 0:08:32.640 --> 0:08:34.560 the ones that are not used up are left over. 0:08:35.080 --> 0:08:40.640 And of all these ions are sodium and chloride. So boom, 0:08:40.760 --> 0:08:44.040 there you have it. Put those two together, you've got salt. Yep, 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:45.800 and all that stuff flows in the ocean. And that's 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:49.440 why you have got a couple of stats. The three 0:08:49.480 --> 0:08:51.640 point five percent of the weight of seawater comes from 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:55.960 dissolved salts. And they say, some say that if you 0:08:55.960 --> 0:08:59.080 took all the salt from the ocean and spread it 0:08:59.120 --> 0:09:03.320 evenly over the Earth's land, just the land, it would 0:09:03.360 --> 0:09:06.760 be about a forty stories high five feet thick. Wow, 0:09:07.440 --> 0:09:09.280 there's a lot of salt to get rid of you 0:09:10.640 --> 0:09:13.360 and it's all from broken down rocks. Huh. Yeah. And 0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:19.040 why is desalination a big deal? Because? Uh, clean potable 0:09:19.120 --> 0:09:21.640 drinking water is a problem in a lot of parts 0:09:21.640 --> 0:09:23.560 of the world. Dude, it is getting to be a 0:09:23.559 --> 0:09:26.960 problem faster and faster. Yeah. Like some people say that 0:09:27.000 --> 0:09:30.320 the future wars will be fought over water, which is 0:09:30.360 --> 0:09:33.559 really scary to think about, you know. Um, and for 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:36.600 drought to like, uh, it's not just you know, I'm 0:09:36.640 --> 0:09:39.040 in a developing country and we don't have access to 0:09:39.080 --> 0:09:42.680 clean drinking water, big problem, But places like California suffer 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:46.600 a drought, Like maybe we should think about building desalination plants, right, 0:09:46.640 --> 0:09:49.040 and they have as a result. Yeah, which we'll get to. 0:09:49.360 --> 0:09:51.960 So so first of all, we should say happy World 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:55.760 Water Day to everybody. It's March two is World Water Day. 0:09:56.120 --> 0:10:00.280 So just think about that while you're you know it's 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:05.920 March um. And yes, so there's a there's a great 0:10:05.960 --> 0:10:08.839 need for water. That's the whole reason for World Water 0:10:08.920 --> 0:10:12.079 Day is to point that out. Supposedly right now, seven 0:10:12.280 --> 0:10:18.520 million people, um, black access to water. They don't have. 0:10:18.640 --> 0:10:23.440 There's a water scarcity clean drinking water, yes, um. And 0:10:23.480 --> 0:10:26.880 they think that that's gonna rise to one point eight 0:10:26.920 --> 0:10:30.800 billion by in ten years. It's gonna add another one 0:10:30.840 --> 0:10:35.800 point one billion people to those who face water shortages. Yeah. 0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:37.640 We talked about that a little bit in our Life 0:10:37.640 --> 0:10:40.880 Straw podcasts from quite a few years ago. But the 0:10:40.920 --> 0:10:44.640 life straw is a um it's about to say single use, 0:10:44.679 --> 0:10:48.880 not single use, but single serving, single well, not single serving. 0:10:49.559 --> 0:10:51.880 It's uh what do you call it? If like it's 0:10:51.920 --> 0:10:58.000 just for one person or a family, uh, single person? Personal? Yeah, heirloom. 0:10:58.120 --> 0:11:01.880 It's a personal uh device that you can use to 0:11:02.679 --> 0:11:06.080 literally drink water like out of a river through this straw. 0:11:06.520 --> 0:11:08.360 You just put it in the river. It's got filters 0:11:08.400 --> 0:11:10.679 in it, so it filters out I don't it doesn't 0:11:10.720 --> 0:11:12.520 filter out salid and it has to be used for 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:16.000 fresh water, but it filters out like bacteria, things that 0:11:16.080 --> 0:11:20.199 you know, disease causing stuff. Um. So, yeah, we did 0:11:20.200 --> 0:11:22.360 talk about water scarce today. I think we've talked about 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:24.400 it in another one too, like why can't we manufacture 0:11:24.520 --> 0:11:26.600 water and things like that. It's part of our water 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:30.920 sweet it is, and it's ongoing because the problem is 0:11:30.960 --> 0:11:33.800 not getting better, it's getting worse. One of one of 0:11:33.840 --> 0:11:37.720 the responses to water shortages around the world is what's 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:42.920 called virtual water exporting, which is where you and I 0:11:42.960 --> 0:11:45.720 have a bunch of fresh water and we use it 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:48.160 to grow grain, and then we send that grain to 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:51.040 a place that doesn't have much water, so they get 0:11:51.040 --> 0:11:53.440 to use their water for drinking. They don't have to 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:56.080 use it for grain. That makes so and there's a 0:11:56.080 --> 0:11:58.360 lot of different things that we use water for that 0:11:58.440 --> 0:12:01.280 can be exported. It's hard to explore water, but you 0:12:01.320 --> 0:12:04.360 can use it for stuff and save other people from 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:07.520 having to use it. Right. Um, because we use a 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:09.360 lot of water. We do use a lot of water, 0:12:09.400 --> 0:12:13.560 Americans especially, but you hear stats like, oh, this desalination 0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:17.120 plant can pump out like fifteen billion gallons of fresh water. 0:12:17.400 --> 0:12:20.120 You think, man, fifteen billion gallons is so much. It's 0:12:20.200 --> 0:12:22.720 not very much at all. No, it's not a scheme. 0:12:22.880 --> 0:12:26.720 I think fifteen billion goallons of water is two thirds 0:12:26.800 --> 0:12:30.480 of a percent, two thirds of one percent of the 0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:36.600 amount of water used by humans every day. Yeah, and um, 0:12:36.679 --> 0:12:39.720 I think all of the desalination plants online, there's seventeen 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:44.400 thousand of them. Yeah, and that accounts. I think that's 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:47.400 all of them, from the from the very small ones 0:12:47.960 --> 0:12:51.160 to the ones that are also used in like uh 0:12:51.480 --> 0:12:55.840 as part of the fracking process. So it's not necessarily 0:12:55.880 --> 0:12:58.600 all of those are to deliver water to humans. But yeah, 0:12:58.640 --> 0:13:03.560 there are that many. So the seventeen thousand desalination plants 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:06.480 online in the world, and they think that could double 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:11.319 by um, which is pretty good. That's those seventeen thousand 0:13:11.400 --> 0:13:13.920 of producing twenty one billion gallons a day. I remember, 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:17.040 fifteen billion is two thirds of one percent of all 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:20.200 of the fresh water used every day around the world. 0:13:20.840 --> 0:13:23.400 So it's still sorry for the pun, but a drop 0:13:23.400 --> 0:13:28.360 in the bucket. Yeah, but things are changing fast. They 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:31.400 are this new one in California, which we're going to 0:13:31.480 --> 0:13:35.040 talk about later. UM is the largest in the Western Hemisphere. 0:13:35.040 --> 0:13:37.680 Will produce fifty million gallons per day on its own. 0:13:38.000 --> 0:13:41.600 It's pretty substantial, pretty substantial. UM. So we'll talk about 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:45.160 the technology used in this. It's actually kind of old. 0:13:45.640 --> 0:14:11.160 It needs a little updating, right for this, So, Chuck, 0:14:11.520 --> 0:14:18.000 there's basically two ways that humans desalinate sea water. Yeah 0:14:18.559 --> 0:14:21.880 and UM. They've both been around for many, many decades. 0:14:22.440 --> 0:14:28.280 They're in theory. They're pretty good at removing sea salt 0:14:28.320 --> 0:14:32.640 from seawater to create fresh water. But there's over the 0:14:32.680 --> 0:14:36.400 course of these decades we've found this could be improved, 0:14:36.440 --> 0:14:38.600 This could be improved. That can be improved, and we'll 0:14:38.640 --> 0:14:41.600 talk about that later. But this technology, it's been around 0:14:41.640 --> 0:14:43.440 for a little while, is what I'm trying to say. 0:14:44.040 --> 0:14:48.760 UM and the two different The main competitors are UM, 0:14:48.960 --> 0:14:56.080 multi stage flash UH desalination. Yeah. Sometimes I've talked like 0:14:56.120 --> 0:15:01.320 Barack Obama, Well that's a good thing. I'm not getting political, 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:04.640 Dge mean, he's known as a great orator, was Chuck 0:15:04.920 --> 0:15:09.320 was uh? And and the other one is reverse osmosis. 0:15:09.840 --> 0:15:13.080 Do you remember like that poster in in elementary school 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:15.400 it was like Garfield laying down on a pile of 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:18.840 books taking a nap, and it said, I'm learning through osmosis. 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:21.080 I think I do remember that. I was the Garfield 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:23.960 fan think that every time I see the word osmosis. Yeah, 0:15:24.160 --> 0:15:25.920 I didn't get the joke when I was a kid, 0:15:26.160 --> 0:15:28.560 and now that I do get, it's not that funny, 0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:31.960 but I'm reminded of it every time. Yeah, he didn't 0:15:32.000 --> 0:15:37.360 understand why it Lasagna right. Yeah, it's kind of weird 0:15:37.400 --> 0:15:40.200 to think about now. And the so the reverse osmosis 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:43.000 one is the state of the art. That's the one 0:15:43.040 --> 0:15:47.000 that's used most widely. Yes, and uh, I think that 0:15:47.440 --> 0:15:52.320 term was coined in the nineteen fifties by the U. S. Military. 0:15:52.360 --> 0:15:55.680 I think we're the first ones to start using that process. Yeah, 0:15:55.760 --> 0:15:59.280 World War two makes sense. It was an Eisenhoward creation probably. Yeah, Like, 0:15:59.280 --> 0:16:01.360 we're out on this eye in the Pacific. Our soldiers 0:16:01.440 --> 0:16:04.080 need some stuff, so let's start a process to um 0:16:04.280 --> 0:16:07.160 buy stuff, I mean water. We'll start a process where 0:16:07.160 --> 0:16:08.880 we can take the salt out of the water all 0:16:08.880 --> 0:16:12.280 around us. And so they did reverse osmosis. Yeah, and 0:16:12.280 --> 0:16:16.720 and again, I mean we talked about solar stills right, Yeah, 0:16:16.760 --> 0:16:18.720 I don't think we described like. You can do this 0:16:18.800 --> 0:16:21.600 experiment yourself and your at your house. Well. And also, 0:16:21.680 --> 0:16:27.760 if you're ever caught without without water, you're stranded at sea. Yea, 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:31.320 all you need is a bowl and a glass rap 0:16:32.040 --> 0:16:35.200 and you're fine. Yeah, I mean you can use other things, 0:16:35.240 --> 0:16:39.240 like if you were Tom Hanks and castaway, you could 0:16:39.280 --> 0:16:41.680 just try and use the things around you to create 0:16:41.720 --> 0:16:44.800 the same effect. But yes, go ahead and describe it. Well, 0:16:44.880 --> 0:16:47.400 you take you take some seawater, you put it in 0:16:47.400 --> 0:16:49.720 a bowl. You put an empty glass in the middle 0:16:49.760 --> 0:16:53.440 of that water. Um, I guess you want to make 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:55.840 sure it doesn't float. Other than that, you're fine. Put 0:16:55.880 --> 0:16:58.280 some stine wrap over it. Poke a hole in the 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:00.600 middle of the surrand wrap so that it's over the 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:03.640 center of the empty glass, and just set it out 0:17:03.640 --> 0:17:07.320 in the sun. Yeah, because the sun will cause the 0:17:07.359 --> 0:17:09.879 water to evaporate, which means it will go up to 0:17:09.920 --> 0:17:13.879 the underside of the suran wrap, cling to it and 0:17:14.600 --> 0:17:20.680 condensate into the glass. Oh yeah, into the glass, right, 0:17:20.760 --> 0:17:23.600 And what goes into the glass will be freshwater. The 0:17:23.640 --> 0:17:26.159 salt will be left behind because the evaporation will have 0:17:26.200 --> 0:17:31.680 separated the two. Yeah, and we're basically described describing you know, rain, right, 0:17:31.720 --> 0:17:34.720 the rain cycle, but in a glass of suran wrap exactly. 0:17:34.800 --> 0:17:40.679 And by seran wrap we mean like cellophane wrap. Um. 0:17:40.720 --> 0:17:43.240 But that's a solar still, that's pretty basic. You can 0:17:43.280 --> 0:17:44.919 do it on a rowboat again, if you have a 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:49.360 glass of bowling suran wrap. Um. Reverse osmosis is something different, 0:17:49.640 --> 0:17:54.120 that's right. It's actually the opposite of natural. Quite literally, yes, 0:17:54.200 --> 0:17:58.679 because osmoses is natural. Reverse osmoses ain't natural. It ain't natural. 0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:01.760 That is when you put salt water on one side 0:18:02.119 --> 0:18:06.040 of the membrane, semiprobreable membrane and he use pressure to 0:18:06.119 --> 0:18:08.520 the tune of I think this one in California is 0:18:08.560 --> 0:18:12.480 like they said, six times as powerful as a fire hose. 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:17.840 Whoa so serious pressure to um to move the water 0:18:17.920 --> 0:18:20.879 molecules through that membrane basically, and it's it's like a 0:18:20.880 --> 0:18:24.679 big filter filters out the salt. Yeah, it's it's calling 0:18:24.720 --> 0:18:27.720 it anything else, but a filter is kind of fancy. Yeah, 0:18:27.760 --> 0:18:29.960 because I think they said the pores on these membranes 0:18:29.960 --> 0:18:33.080 are like smaller than a human hair. So it's not 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:35.159 like your average filtering, you know what I mean. No, 0:18:35.359 --> 0:18:38.640 it's not The point is what you're doing is you're 0:18:38.720 --> 0:18:41.280 you're pushing water through membrane that the water can make 0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:45.240 it through, but the salute, the salt inside of it can't, 0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:48.040 so the salt is left behind, right and um in 0:18:48.160 --> 0:18:51.919 a reverse osmosis system, and they call it reverse osmosis 0:18:51.960 --> 0:18:56.000 because under normal osmosis, what you have is something with 0:18:56.080 --> 0:19:00.200 a low concentration of a slute, So fresh water water 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:03.919 on one side of a membrane and saltwater on the 0:19:03.920 --> 0:19:07.879 other side of the membrane. That water is going to 0:19:08.080 --> 0:19:12.080 the freshwater is going to move from the area of 0:19:12.160 --> 0:19:15.199 low concentration, so the freshwater is going to move to 0:19:15.280 --> 0:19:18.560 an area of higher concentration the saltwater in order to 0:19:18.600 --> 0:19:23.080 achieve one of our favorite things, homeostasis, it wants to 0:19:23.119 --> 0:19:26.240 achieve a balance so that the stuff on either side 0:19:26.240 --> 0:19:30.439 of the membrane will be equally salty. Right that that 0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:34.240 makes sense, Okay? Reverse ASBOs is the opposite. So if 0:19:34.400 --> 0:19:37.920 water naturally wants to go from low concentration too high, 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:42.280 with reverse osmosis, you're going from high concentration to low. 0:19:43.080 --> 0:19:46.119 And that's just again another way of putting it, of 0:19:46.240 --> 0:19:49.600 saying you're filtering the salt from the water by pushing 0:19:49.600 --> 0:19:52.600 the water through a membrane with a lot of pressure 0:19:52.720 --> 0:19:54.800 via a lot of pumps. Yeah, and you're running it 0:19:54.800 --> 0:20:00.480 through a lot more than just one membrane. Oh sure, yeah, yeah, great. 0:20:00.640 --> 0:20:05.000 So that's reverse osmosis number one. Uh and not number 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:07.640 one in ranking, just it's number one in my book. 0:20:08.000 --> 0:20:11.440 It see, I'm a multi stage flash guy, are you sure? 0:20:11.480 --> 0:20:15.000 Why not? Uh? That uses heat. If you've heard of flashing, 0:20:15.040 --> 0:20:17.879 like flash buying or something, basically means to do something 0:20:18.480 --> 0:20:22.320 cooking wise very quickly. Um. So flashing in this case 0:20:22.440 --> 0:20:26.159 is bringing water to a boil really quickly, and multi 0:20:26.200 --> 0:20:29.080 stage means you're gonna do it in different stages multiple times. 0:20:29.359 --> 0:20:31.880 So the name makes sense. Yeah. So basically what you're 0:20:31.920 --> 0:20:36.280 doing is you're gonna boil this water super fast many times. 0:20:36.560 --> 0:20:40.240 And each time this happens, water vapor is going to form, 0:20:40.320 --> 0:20:43.560 and uh, you're gonna have fresh water there and then 0:20:43.560 --> 0:20:47.399 the salty brine is left over to be disposed of. 0:20:47.680 --> 0:20:50.320 It's like making a solar still, like a flash boiled 0:20:50.359 --> 0:20:53.280 solar still over and over again. That's right. So yeah, 0:20:53.440 --> 0:20:57.919 multi flash, multi stage flash is like um, a super 0:20:58.000 --> 0:21:01.760 hot solar still over and over again, and each time 0:21:01.800 --> 0:21:07.600 you collect that evaporated fresh water behind. There's some real 0:21:07.720 --> 0:21:10.640 issues with both of these right, as simple as they are. 0:21:11.600 --> 0:21:13.680 Um And one of the chief ones is that if 0:21:13.720 --> 0:21:17.200 you take a bunch of saltwater, right and you either 0:21:17.359 --> 0:21:22.320 filter the freshwater out of it or you boil the 0:21:22.400 --> 0:21:25.720 fresh water out of it, there's still something left, and 0:21:25.760 --> 0:21:28.600 that is salt, and you're probably not gonna get all 0:21:28.600 --> 0:21:31.480 the water. So what you have is called brine. And 0:21:31.520 --> 0:21:35.119 if you compare brine to seawater, brian is even saltier 0:21:35.160 --> 0:21:38.760 than seawater. The reason why is there's not more salt 0:21:38.840 --> 0:21:42.360 than there's in seawater. There's just less water. So it's 0:21:42.400 --> 0:21:46.159 like an ultra concentrated form of seawater. Well, you're not 0:21:46.240 --> 0:21:48.800 gonna do anything with this except try to put it 0:21:48.840 --> 0:21:51.760 back in the ocean. Once you do that, you have 0:21:51.800 --> 0:21:54.600 a big, big problem because you kill a lot of 0:21:54.600 --> 0:21:57.439 the sea life. Yeah. It basically it's heavier, so it 0:21:57.440 --> 0:22:01.600 settles down on the bottom. And um So the things 0:22:01.640 --> 0:22:06.760 that they're trying now to combat that is uh one, uh, 0:22:06.800 --> 0:22:10.560 diluting it with a bunch of other water. Yeah, I 0:22:10.560 --> 0:22:12.720 think of five to one ratio is what they are 0:22:12.920 --> 0:22:15.640 suggesting at this point. And they're not saying like, well, 0:22:15.640 --> 0:22:17.320 we'll just use some of the fresh water we just 0:22:17.400 --> 0:22:19.720 distilled out. That wouldn't make any sense. They're using things 0:22:19.800 --> 0:22:24.719 like UM industrial or agricultural waste water that they were 0:22:24.760 --> 0:22:28.040 just gonna pump into the ocean anyway, exactly, So mix 0:22:28.080 --> 0:22:30.199 it with that brine diluted out and it's not going 0:22:30.280 --> 0:22:33.000 to be as bad for the environment. Uh. They're also 0:22:33.119 --> 0:22:37.920 doing it gradually now, much much slower, which also helps. Uh. 0:22:37.960 --> 0:22:42.560 They're strategically placing it in the ocean in places where 0:22:42.560 --> 0:22:47.880 it is more UM apt to disperse very quickly. It's 0:22:47.880 --> 0:22:50.960 a very strategic placement. I think in Australia they try 0:22:51.000 --> 0:22:54.000 to do uh, they try to re release it to 0:22:54.119 --> 0:22:57.200 the tune of UM a hundred and sixty two fifty 0:22:57.240 --> 0:23:00.359 ft away, you won't tell any difference in the are 0:23:00.440 --> 0:23:03.840 uh salt concentrations. And then the last thing that they're 0:23:04.200 --> 0:23:06.879 trying to enforce whenever we build these new plants is 0:23:07.080 --> 0:23:11.120 UM to bury these pipes and actually do it under 0:23:11.160 --> 0:23:15.640 the sea floor. Uh. Out of yeah, well, I mean 0:23:15.640 --> 0:23:17.399 out of side. In other words, is not being released 0:23:17.440 --> 0:23:20.280 directly into the water. It's being released into the sand 0:23:20.400 --> 0:23:23.200 under the water, and then I think the sand actually 0:23:23.240 --> 0:23:26.320 acts as it filter as it disperses. But that's a 0:23:26.320 --> 0:23:30.200 lot more expense as well to bury these pipes, um, 0:23:30.240 --> 0:23:33.360 so chuck. Dealing with Brian is just one challenge that 0:23:33.520 --> 0:23:37.720 desalination engineers have to deal with the plenty of other 0:23:37.720 --> 0:23:40.159 ones that popped up over time and come up with 0:23:40.200 --> 0:23:43.760 some pretty cool solutions or ideas for solving some of 0:23:43.800 --> 0:23:46.800 these problems. We're gonna get into that right after this, 0:24:08.800 --> 0:24:13.760 so chuck. Um. When you put seawater through reverse osmosis 0:24:13.840 --> 0:24:15.960 or multi stage flash, you end up with Brian and 0:24:16.000 --> 0:24:17.720 you have to figure out what to do with that Brian. 0:24:18.520 --> 0:24:25.080 There's some other problems too with desalination. For one, it's expensive. Um. 0:24:25.119 --> 0:24:29.320 Apparently they measure water on the scale of things like 0:24:29.680 --> 0:24:35.560 desalination plants and something called um what foot acre, and 0:24:35.600 --> 0:24:38.840 a foot acre is like three thousand gallons, and a 0:24:38.880 --> 0:24:43.119 foot acre is about the amount of water at a 0:24:43.640 --> 0:24:49.080