thatawesomedrunkguy t1_j228yhd wrote on December 29, 2022 at 3:06 AM

Reply to comment by remek in UIUC Researchers propose a new way to get fresh water from seawater, without the disadvantages of traditional desalination. They say that a vertical “capture surface” that is 210 m wide and 100 m tall, could extract enough vapor floating above warm oceans to supply 500,000 people with freshwater by lughnasadh

Keep in mind that this $2-$5 per m3 capacity is capital equipment cost (with civil/install/etc ) only. OPEX is an additional 3-5 kwh/m3 produced, which costs can vary whereever you are on the planet.

Seawater desal, specifically reverse osmosis, has a lot of detractors who don't like it because you you're generally getting a recovery of about 40-50%. Which means you're dumping more than half your high salt concentration brine back into the water. This is water that has 2-3x the salinity of the ocean/sea, so there is rightfully a lot of concern about destroying the environment/ecosystem.

There's a push to improve the recoveries in desalination, but the cost is always it requires even greater energy consumption.

Personally, a mix of seawater desal and wastewater reuse would be the best solution for growing water crisis.