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 :
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 :
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 :
[ source :
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 :
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
Is
desalination worth its salt ?
19 Nov 2018
www.hemenparekh.in
/ blogs
