• hotcouchguy [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    3 months ago

    That part makes sense I guess. But why are they running a desalination plant in a place with fresh water? Unless the “fresh” water in this case is just anything less-salty than the ocean?

    • Le_Wokisme [they/them, undecided]@hexbear.net
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      3 months ago

      article is kinda light on details, it does mention the possibility of using treated wastewater as the “fresh” but not whether this facility does or if there’s some other water quality issue.

      i better understand generating power from the brine if you had to dilute it anyway but you’re right it’s odd if there’s a bunch of potable water around.

      • Carl [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        3 months ago

        Another article says that the Fukuoka plant uses “River water or treated wastewater”, so the “fresh” water is not necessarily “potable” water. I’m guessing that the desalinization plant was already in existence in order to meet the water demand of the locals, and the whole idea here is to get a little more value out of the two types of wastewater that the city is already generating before sending them to the ocean.

        • Le_Wokisme [they/them, undecided]@hexbear.net
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          3 months ago

          yeah that’s the most sensible thing. the gradient on brackish river water into the sea is probably too smooth for power generation but maybe you can divert it from further upstream without impacting the environment the way dams do.