…And all the rivers and lakes in between
Pure water - Drinking water - With air, as Jacques Cousteau has been often quoted, “the two essential fluids, on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans.”
We have seen the “Hubbard Peak” for oil described as the point in time at which the supply of oil begins to decline until, at the end, the supply is gone. (See our blog #3 “The Learning Curve and the Hubbert Peak” Jan 24, 2009)
We cannot imagine that the supply of water would ever be “used up.” After all, water covers 71 percent of the earth. The question is whether the supply of clean, drinkable, water would decrease while a world population continues to increase.
We will talk about the world-wide water situation later. Now we are looking at conditions in the United States and along the border with Canada.
Every day the US consumes, on average, some 345 Billion gallons of fresh water. That amount of water would cover the entire state of Rhode Island to a depth of one foot! And the breakdown of that figure is interesting – and important
136 Billion gallons go to irrigation
136 Billion go to electric power plants
47 Billion go to public and domestic supply
26 Billion for industrial use.
Of the public and domestic category about half goes to the domestic or home use. That works out to be about 75 gallons a day per person at home.
All this is based on a current US population of 303,824,640 in mid 2008. The population figure is expected to increase at the rate of 0.88% per year (accounting for births and deaths).
Using this data, by the year 2020 the US will need an additional 2,535,375,234 gallons of good water per day. And this does not account for any increase in agriculture needed to support the increased number of people.
Clearly the world faces a possible shortage of water due to increased population, uneven supplies of clean water and other factors. In our next report we will discuss some of the solutions as they apply in the US, Canada and around the world.
Here again, there is hope if proper action is taken.
Showing posts with label water. Show all posts
Showing posts with label water. Show all posts
Friday, March 27, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
Air and Water – The Essential Survival Solutions
Some things bear repeating – more than once – and one of those is the statement of the honored Jacques Yves-Cousteau who warned, “Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans.”
There are many, in all locations, in all walks of life and with the best of intentions who are attempting to “clean up the mess.” A major problem is the lack of coordination of these efforts with the result that cross-purposes often wind up making matters worse instead of better.
So we have to “unpollute” both the air and our water supply while still providing those services to humanity that requires the consumption of energy. Not so easy – but not impossible.
Here are some scenarios that promise clean energy and air at greatly reduced cost:
Where falling water exists near salt water (oceans/seas) hydropower can be generated and used for desalination processes as well a normal export of electricity
Where a supply of natural gas is within reasonable distance of the salt water electricity can be generated with the gas and the waste heat recovered to run a desalination process.
Where falling water exists inland, away from salt water, hydropower can be used to provide cleaning services for contaminated “fresh” water that is not usable for drinking, washing or normal human functions.
Where geothermal energy is available and falling water is not, “geo” can be used for generation, desalination and decontamination: - wherever a heat source is needed.
And where are all these Hydro- and Geo- sources and are they available to be used?
Well, for starts there are 159 hydroelectric power plants in 34 states. 78% are using man-made dams to develop falling water, and not nature’s waterfalls.
In 16 continental states there are 85 waterfalls from 3 to 10 times higher than Niagara. (Hawaii has 41 more – big ones). Of course the volume of water passed for power generation is directly related to the width of the waterfall. We are studying this.
In Canada the roles are reversed. In 7 provinces there are 42 major waterfalls many times larger than Niagara. And while there are 55 hydroelectric power plants only 34% of them use man-made dams for falling water.
Message: there is potential on both sides of the border.
As to geothermal potentials, the search for geothermal fields is on – and proceeding with great success. California’s success is famous; it currently has over 2,500 Megawatts of installed capacity.
Idaho has installed its first plant, as has New Mexico. Nevada has 17 power plants with a total output of 318 MW. And in late 2008 Associated Press reported the discovery of a “massive geothermal field” in Utah which is being developed as we speak.
You must have noted by now that all of the geothermal activity is in the West. In areas that mostly don’t have falling water.
Soon we will go into much greater detail regarding the life-saving processes enabled by nature’s replaceable water and earth’s rather large supply of heat.
After all, America is a work in progress
There are many, in all locations, in all walks of life and with the best of intentions who are attempting to “clean up the mess.” A major problem is the lack of coordination of these efforts with the result that cross-purposes often wind up making matters worse instead of better.
So we have to “unpollute” both the air and our water supply while still providing those services to humanity that requires the consumption of energy. Not so easy – but not impossible.
Here are some scenarios that promise clean energy and air at greatly reduced cost:
Where falling water exists near salt water (oceans/seas) hydropower can be generated and used for desalination processes as well a normal export of electricity
Where a supply of natural gas is within reasonable distance of the salt water electricity can be generated with the gas and the waste heat recovered to run a desalination process.
Where falling water exists inland, away from salt water, hydropower can be used to provide cleaning services for contaminated “fresh” water that is not usable for drinking, washing or normal human functions.
Where geothermal energy is available and falling water is not, “geo” can be used for generation, desalination and decontamination: - wherever a heat source is needed.
And where are all these Hydro- and Geo- sources and are they available to be used?
Well, for starts there are 159 hydroelectric power plants in 34 states. 78% are using man-made dams to develop falling water, and not nature’s waterfalls.
In 16 continental states there are 85 waterfalls from 3 to 10 times higher than Niagara. (Hawaii has 41 more – big ones). Of course the volume of water passed for power generation is directly related to the width of the waterfall. We are studying this.
In Canada the roles are reversed. In 7 provinces there are 42 major waterfalls many times larger than Niagara. And while there are 55 hydroelectric power plants only 34% of them use man-made dams for falling water.
Message: there is potential on both sides of the border.
As to geothermal potentials, the search for geothermal fields is on – and proceeding with great success. California’s success is famous; it currently has over 2,500 Megawatts of installed capacity.
Idaho has installed its first plant, as has New Mexico. Nevada has 17 power plants with a total output of 318 MW. And in late 2008 Associated Press reported the discovery of a “massive geothermal field” in Utah which is being developed as we speak.
You must have noted by now that all of the geothermal activity is in the West. In areas that mostly don’t have falling water.
Soon we will go into much greater detail regarding the life-saving processes enabled by nature’s replaceable water and earth’s rather large supply of heat.
After all, America is a work in progress
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Water, Water Everywhere
…and the boards did shrink. Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink,” (Samuel Coleridge)
Water covers 71-percent of the entire earth. But of all that water only about 3 percent is fresh and drinkable (also called “potable’).
Water is available almost everywhere. The main question is the methods used to obtain it. Sources like ground water, aquifers, rain collection, surface water such as rivers, streams, even glaciers – all have to be tested to be certain of its safety for drinking, washing and hygienic uses.
The most common contamination of water sources from the ground and surface flow is human sewage and especially human fecal and parasitic waste.
The availability of clean, “potable” water is found in direct proportion to the wealth, or economy, of the country or area studied. In the poorer countries lack of clean water has reached endemic proportions; 2 million deaths a year of which 90 percent are children under the age of five.
There are processes at work and others being studied to “desalinate” sea water for human consumption and there are some experts that say we should be working more seriously on this problem than we have to date. One of the problems involved in obtaining consumable water from the ocean is that the process is very expensive, space and time consuming.
The Lorson Group has for years expounded the theory that water power generated electricity is one of the ultimate answers to the cleaning the environment. We suggest now that the process of generation can be coupled with that of desalinization of brackish water to the even greater benefit to humanity at costs considerably lower than those encountered in the past.
We have found the economics of hydropower and its clean and very cheap product. We have also found the means of increasing the efficiency of fossil fuel generation of electricity from 35% to 75-80% through waste heat recovery.
In our succeeding issues we will present the combined advantages of hydropower and the total energy generation concept to work on cleaning up both air and water.
We close this one by quoting Jacques Cousteau, that eminent explorer, ecologist, filmmaker, humanitarian, photographer, author and sea study researcher who said “Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans.”
Water covers 71-percent of the entire earth. But of all that water only about 3 percent is fresh and drinkable (also called “potable’).
Water is available almost everywhere. The main question is the methods used to obtain it. Sources like ground water, aquifers, rain collection, surface water such as rivers, streams, even glaciers – all have to be tested to be certain of its safety for drinking, washing and hygienic uses.
The most common contamination of water sources from the ground and surface flow is human sewage and especially human fecal and parasitic waste.
The availability of clean, “potable” water is found in direct proportion to the wealth, or economy, of the country or area studied. In the poorer countries lack of clean water has reached endemic proportions; 2 million deaths a year of which 90 percent are children under the age of five.
There are processes at work and others being studied to “desalinate” sea water for human consumption and there are some experts that say we should be working more seriously on this problem than we have to date. One of the problems involved in obtaining consumable water from the ocean is that the process is very expensive, space and time consuming.
The Lorson Group has for years expounded the theory that water power generated electricity is one of the ultimate answers to the cleaning the environment. We suggest now that the process of generation can be coupled with that of desalinization of brackish water to the even greater benefit to humanity at costs considerably lower than those encountered in the past.
We have found the economics of hydropower and its clean and very cheap product. We have also found the means of increasing the efficiency of fossil fuel generation of electricity from 35% to 75-80% through waste heat recovery.
In our succeeding issues we will present the combined advantages of hydropower and the total energy generation concept to work on cleaning up both air and water.
We close this one by quoting Jacques Cousteau, that eminent explorer, ecologist, filmmaker, humanitarian, photographer, author and sea study researcher who said “Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans.”
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