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Japan has opened its first osmotic power plant

(www.theguardian.com)
301 points pseudolus | 1 comments | 25 Aug 25 02:53 UTC | HN request time: 0.217s | source
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krunck ◴[26 Aug 25 18:20 UTC] No.45030298[source]▶
So let me get this straight:

1. I take a shower and produce non-salty waste water

2. That waste water and brine from a desalinization plant can be used in this plant.

3. The result is concentrated waste water and less salty brine and some power

4. The power can be used to (partially) power the desalinization plant produces fresh water from sea water and brine.

5. I get fresh water for my shower.

And the diluted brine from step 3 goes to the sea? Or can it be run through the desalinization plant again? Does concentrating the waste water in step 3 also help with the eventual treatment of it

replies(2): >>45031778 #>>45032072 #
1. simonbw ◴[26 Aug 25 20:15 UTC] No.45031778[source]▶
The article mentions "partially treated wastewater", which I take to mean "water that we're ok with dumping into the ocean, but not ok with drinking". I think you can generally read this as a way of gaining some utility out of this partially-treated wastewater before you dump it into the ocean by mixing it with the extra-salty brine from the desalinization plant. The utility you get is: - a bit of energy that would have just been wasted - a more environmentally friendly product to dump in the ocean than just straight brine

I imagine someone out there does a cost-benefit analysis to compare this system to just fully treating and reusing the wastewater and thus needing to desalinate less saltwater.