A Desperate Measure ?

Gujarat CM , Shri Vijay Rupani announced setting up of a Sea Water Desalination plant , costing Rs 1,000 crore

He added :

"We will set up 7-8 plants along the state's coast, which will help in making water crisis a thing of the past “

Read :

Gujarat Water Infrastructure, Essel Infraprojects ink pact for Rs 1,000-cr desalination plant 

Using Reverse Osmosis technology , plant will produce 100 million liter of drinkable water per day

At what cost ?

My guesstimate :

Capital Cost   ……………………………….. Rs   1,000  cr

Interest @ 15 %  ………………………….. Rs    150  cr

Depreciation @ 10 %..................... Rs    100  cr

Operating Expenses @ 20 %  ………… Rs    200  cr

Total annual cost ……………………………  Rs    450  cr

Per day cost ( 365 days ) ………………. Rs  1.23   cr  (  Rs 12.3 Million )

 So , per liter cost …………………………… Rs  0.10  ( approx. )

Considering that , by 2020 , we may expect  “  Water  Wars “ in most metro cities of India , this measure may be justified

I only hope , the Policy Makers took this huge investment decision ( which will require 30 MONTHS to supply water ) , after considering the following alternatives :

 As far as India is concerned , all that is required , is to dig 700,000

    ponds / lakes ( one in each village ) , where we capture / store rain water

 These 700,000 ponds must be lined with Geo-Synthetic Fabrics to ensure

    that the captured water does not seep underground - a simple technology

[ source :

https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2016/04/water-wars.html  /  08 April 2016  ]

     

A device that can create water out of thin air in even arid environments has been invented that could make Coleridge’s famous line “Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink” a thing of the past.

·    Using only the power of the sun and a special material with some extraordinary properties, the device is capable of producing 2.8 litres of water in 12 hours.

·   And it can work in conditions where humidity is as low as 20 per cent.

[ source ;

https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2017/04/water-water-everywhere-even-in-latur.html  /  15  April  2017  ]

Akshay  Deshmukh  [  akshay.deshmukh@yale.edu  ]

 

 

Ref :

 

·         https://scholar.google.co.in/citations?user=SxKsRlUAAAAJ&hl=en

 

·         https://elimelechlab.yale.edu/people/akshay-deshmukh

 

 

And his work ( getting clean water from dry desert air – using Solar energy ) is at :

 

Using Solar Power To Bring Clean Drinking Water To Remote Areas

https://scienceblog.com/499980/using-solar-power-to-bring-clean-drinking-water-to-remote-areas/

[ source :

https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2018/03/worldwaterday-water.html / 24 Mar 2018  ]

It is very heartening that a team of scientists have just come up with such a method

By draping black, carbon-dipped paper in a triangular shape and using it to both absorb and vaporize water, they have developed a method for using sunlight to generate clean water with near-perfect efficiency

Read about this at :

Engineers Upgrade Sun-Powered Water-Purification Technology

http://www.buffalo.edu/campaign/priorities-and-goals/campaign-news.host.html/content/shared/university/news/news-center-releases/2018/05/002.detail.html

[ source :

https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2018/05/clean-drinking-water.html  /  05  May  2018  ]

Making water from air wins couple $1.5 million XPrize 

Highlights :

They prevailed by developing a system that uses shipping containers, wood chips and other detritus to produce as much as 528 gallons ( 2,000 liters ) of water a day at a cost of no more than 2 cents a quart (1 liter).

They settled on creating little rainstorms inside shipping containers by heating up wood chips to produce the temperature and humidity needed to draw water from the air and the wood itself.

And if you don’t have wood chips to heat them with, coconut husks, rice, walnut shells, grass clippings or just about any other such waste product will do just fine

Certainly in regions where you have a lot of  biomass  this is going to be a very simple technology to deploy,” said Matthew Stuber, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Connecticut and expert on water systems who was one of the panel’s judges.

He called their water-making machine a “really cool” merging of rather simple technologies that can be used to quickly deliver water to regions hit by natural disasters, stricken by drought or even rural areas with a shortage of clean water.

[ source :

https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2018/10/making-water-from-air.html

26  Oct  2018   ]

Before different coastal States of India , start spending lakhs of crore of rupees on Desalination Plants , I urge Prime Minister’s Science – Technology – Innovation Advisory Council to examine the above mentioned alternatives , which score over those Desalination Plants in following respects :

·         Very low initial capital cost ( could be 5 %  of Desalination plant equivalent units )

·         Erection / commissioning within WEEKS ( instead of MONTHS )

·         Solar Energy powered ( no need for coal-based / polluting electricity  )

·         Thousands of small units close to usage , eliminating piped distribution

·         No need to be only in coastal areas . Can be anywhere / even in a desert !

·         None ( or very little running maintenance cost )

·         No need to replace Reverse Osmosis Filters ( very expensive )

·         Will solve the problem of Stubble burning / smog in Delhi

·         Plants can be easily fabricated by small , local workshops generating employment

On many earlier occasions , I have said :

All the problems of the World are known

For each of these, practical / feasible solutions are also known

Only NOT known are obsessed / dedicated / committed persons , who come forward to say :

“  I will implement this and won’t let anyone derail me “

References :

Indian Desalination Association

http://indaindia.org.in/about-1.html   /  

http://indaindia.org.in/links-1.html  

Is desalination worth its salt  ?

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19  Nov  2018

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs