Pure Water
In the desert southwest, millions of gallons of brackish, unusable water lies
deep down under the parched earth. The by-product of decades of oil and natural
gas extraction in the area. The water is loaded with high chlorides and sodium, it’s
extremely dirty and volatile. On average, oil wells will produce nine times as much
dirty water as the oil they extract and in the U.S. alone there is over 18 billion
barrels of this polluted water. Too costly to treat the water, it was just pumped
back underground.
But, in this arrid land of the Navajo, times are changing. A company called Altela,
devised a innovative system to purify industrial polluted water utilizing a natural
process of desalination that’s been around for thousands of years, dating back to the
Egyptians. The process is called thermal distillation. By evaporating the water and
then recondensing it.
By copying nature’s process of evaporation and condensation Altila’s water
desalination system doesn’t require expensive pressure pumps or large amounts of
electricity in fact it uses 2/3 less energy than pressure based systems.
It uses thin inexpensive sheets of plastic. By transfering heat across the wall
thickness of the thin sheets, water evaporates on one side of the plastic and
condenses on the other. When many sheets are stacked together in towers, they form
an energy effiecent distillation system.
Simply put, they can take black, brackish water, pump it into one side of the
tower, it evaporates, condenses back, and on the other side out drips water that’s
20% cleaner than the tap water from your kitchen sink.
A dozen of those towers are placed into a mobile unit, trucked right to the oil/gas
well site to treat the water locally. Each “AltelaRain” unit cleans 42,000 gallons
of water a day.
In the Southwestern desert, water is life, and this project has already proven it’s
worth. Good clean water for livestock and agricultural irragation.
This system has worldwide applications, from polluted waters, surface or underground,
to sea water.
So the whole world can have a drink of cool, clear water!
Tags: brackish water, chlorides, desert southwest, dirty water, distillation system, innovative system, mobile unit, natural gas extraction, navajo times, polluted water, pressure pumps, process of desalination, process of evaporation, s, southwestern desert, tap water, thin sheets, water desalination, water is life, worldwide applications
June 17th, 2008 at 9:51 am
I was just thinking, as I was reading this, how many places in the world that could benefit from this… how awesome!
Anitas last blog post..What exactly do I mean by simple living in my own life?
June 17th, 2008 at 10:01 am
I agree… places like the southwest of the U.S. along with Australia, Africa, and many other nations! I can imagine how this would benefit many!
Lindas last blog post..Pure Water
June 17th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
That’s pretty cool, I hadn’t heard about this technique before.
Lyndons last blog post..Random Camera Phone Pics
June 17th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
I love my water, I freeze 2 litres of the stuff and drink it every day like it’s pure nectar straight from mother Earth.
Harnessing solar power with water, ie boiling sea water is a very real alternative which cause relieve the suffering of many.
Alternative and free energy is the true way forward, solar ovens can be used to sterilize a and even boil water.
If you would like to read more on Solar power, inparticular solar cooking then please check out:-
http://solreka.com/blog/solar-cooking
SolRekas last blog post..Alex Jones and 2012
June 17th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
This was a beginning so that folks can see alternatives to their water needs all over the World.
Lindas last blog post..Pure Water
June 17th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Hi Linda! Living in Vegas and definitely surrounded by desert your post immediately caught my eye! We’re having a severe water problem here with Lake Mead predicted to dry up in the next 10 years. Lake Mead, I believe, was the largest man-made lake in America (at one time). No longer! Beaches and lakefront gone. In some places if the mud didn’t kill you, you could walk right into Arizona. It’s a disaster of biblical proportions! While the thought of physically drinking reclaimed water isn’t high on my list, if it’s pure enough, hey this is great!
Dianes last blog post..Fire Up Your Online Earning and Advertising Potential With SocialSpark!
June 17th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
It is pure enough so much that the indians are using it to water their crops and their own drinking water.
Lindas last blog post..Pure Water
June 18th, 2008 at 12:30 am
Wow, maybe there’s hope yet! At the moment, the state is doing one of those “let’s pay out the big bucks for more studies.” Would be nice for them to __ the studies and DO something before it’s too late. Maybe this is a step in the right direction. Growth here in Vegas is ridiculous… did someone forget to plan for “how will we water all these new people?” So far the answer has been yes…
June 18th, 2008 at 12:32 am
What a fabulous idea. Thanks for sharing this great find.
You’re good, Linda.
Barbara Swaffords last blog post..Blogs Aren’t Just For Boys Anymore
June 18th, 2008 at 3:35 am
Over here in Singapore, we’re using reverse osmosis membranes to purify our drinking water.
This method is growing in popularity around the world due to its low cost and energy requirements.
There used to be many jokes about drinking urine.. but not any more.
June 18th, 2008 at 6:44 am
Hi Diane … those dollars spent on studies could be used on devices such as this. There are many out there and this is just one of them. You are right that city planners did not plan accordingly and especially after re-building all of the casinos!
Hi Barbara.. thank you !
Hi Hun Boon … Thank you for sharing another way of purifying water.
Lindas last blog post..Pure Water