frustrated_staff t1_j6jzck3 wrote on January 30, 2023 at 9:36 PM

Reply to comment by Vogel-Kerl in ELI5 Why is desalination so hard? by MiloFrank76

>Then, what to do with the salty sludge leftover.

Clean it up and sell it as table salt or leave it dirty and sell it as road salt for the winter (of which there is also currently a shortage)

Vogel-Kerl t1_j6lrpfd wrote on January 31, 2023 at 5:39 AM

Sure, great ideas.

Besides sodium chloride, there are other salts as well:

Chloride (Cl-) 18.980 21.200 23.000 22.219 Sodium (Na+) 10.556 11.800 15.850 14.255 Sulfate (SO42-) 2.649 2.950 3.200 3.078 Magnesium (Mg2+) 1.262 1.403 1.765 742 Calcium (Ca2+) 400 423 500 225 Potassium (K+) 380 463 460 210 Bicarbonate(HCO3-) 140 - 142 146 Strontium (Sr2+) 13 - - - Bromide (Br-) 65 155 80 72 Borate (BO33-) 26 72 - - Fluoride (F-) 1 - - - Silicate (SiO32-) 1 - 1,5 - Iodide (I-)

frustrated_staff t1_j6m2vvl wrote on January 31, 2023 at 7:54 AM

Those are dissolved solids in mg/L. Did you notice how the top 2 are literally table salt? Potassium Chloride is NuSalt (a type of table salt), Magnesium Chloride is valued in industry, Flouride is valued in industry (especially dental products).

The only things I see in this list that are problematic are the Strontium and the Bromide, and I'm sure somebody has a use for them. This is really just an entrepreneur's opportunity waiting to happen