Desalination and Geothermal – the ideal marriage?

The first thing we must do is define “ideal marriage.” This would normally require the review of a number of opinions. So we’ll make it easy:

IN ENERGY an ideal marriage would be defined as the union of two individual energy forms found in nature whose combination will result in the production of a highly desired offspring – clean energy product in a clean environment. Meant for each other.

In our present case the product is to be clean, drinkable water produced without harm to any part of the environment, earth, water or atmosphere. And the marriage that is proposed to take place must consider the arguments of the anti-desalinators we reported in our last report. So let’s see what is fact and what is fiction.

It all looks so reasonable. There is the ocean water – loaded with good and bad elements – and the one we’re interested in - the basic, clean water. And right there, by the ocean in many areas, is natural heat from the earth sufficient to fuel the desalination process so seriously needed.
So what’s the problem?

Like so many energy-related functions there are good and bad aspects – no one’s perfect. Some sources of geothermal energy release carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfate and even though these are in quantities significantly smaller than the harmful results of coal and oil burning, they need to be eliminated if possible.

One way appears to offer even greater cleanliness. All along the rim of the entire Pacific Ocean, east and west, are locations where the geothermal heat below earth’s surface raises the temperature of the ocean water to temperatures from 180 to 320 degrees F. These are found from depths of 3 feet to 50 feet when drilling small wells into the ocean floor, and are called geothermal aquifers (in this case “Warm Geothermal Aquifers”)

Hot sea water can then be used through heat exchangers to provide desalination and steam for the generation of electricity.

These processes have been used in Mexico, USA, and Greece and in growing numbers around the Mediterranean Sea and the Pacific Rim.

The marriage may be ideal and we look forward to seeing more successful unions of this type around the world.