H2OIL: New fuel technology gulps water, threatens supply

[Geee]

Washington Times:

For decades, Americans worried about running out of energy to keep their cars revving and their homes heated, but with technologies making oil, natural gas and other fossil fuels more plentiful, the danger now is that the world might run out of the water needed to produce power.

 

Top energy analysts are finding that power generation and oil and gas development — particularly from shale bedrock — are threatened in areas of water scarcity because increasingly critical extraction techniques are heavy users of water.

 

The danger, reports say, lies in the U.S. Southeast and West, as well as in the deserts of the Middle East and China, home to some of the most promising fields for fuel extraction worldwide.

 

Outside of farming, no other industry uses as much water as energy. Worldwide, the energy industry typically consumes 15 percent of the water withdrawn from rivers, lakes and reservoirs. In the U.S., the share is even higher: Electric power alone accounts for 40 percent of all water use, increasingly putting it on par with drinking water and other essential uses by households and businesses.

 

[Valin]

@Geee

 

 

Yes...And....?

 

 

fracking recycling water

 

As the planets population grows to 7 billion and beyond, and people increasingly migrate to dry, sunny climates such as the American West that have limited supplies of water, clashes between human and commercial needs for water are expected to grow.

I recall reading about this back in the 70's

 

It appears what we have here is yet one more...

 

 

Gloom, despair, and agony on me

Deep, dark depression, excessive misery

If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all

Gloom, despair, and agony on me

[Valin]

On A Related Note:

 

Massive New Water Project Opens, But Will It Work?

 

China just took another step toward easing its water crisis. Water began flowing along the Eastern Route of the unassuming sounding South-North Water Diversion Project a few days ago. The project is perhaps the largest and most expensive infrastructure enterprise in the history of the human race. It will draw water from Chinas fertile south to the parched north, through three sets of canals and tunnels called the Western, Middle, and Eastern routes (see map). Why? Because northern China is dying.

 

The Project aims to ensure the Chinese nation survives by physically moving tons of water from south to north. The logistics are simply stunning. It will connect the Yangtze and the Yellow Rivers, two of Asias largest, taking 44.8 billion cubic meters of water each year out of the Yangtze and putting it into the northern Yellow River basin. There will be 3,000 kilometers of tunnels and canals through mountains, across farmland and undergroundnot much less than the entire length of the Mississippi River. As is normal when China builds something big, hundreds of thousands of people will be forcibly moved out of the way. The Eastern section, the one that opened recently, will eventually pump 14.8 billion cubic meters of water a year, as the Economist reports; so far, the liquid in it has been so dirty and polluted that millions of dollars have been spent on purification. The Western link is the most controversial: it crosses fragile Himalayan terrain. The Middle section should be open in a year. Together it is projected to cost $79.4 billion. It would be cheaper to desalinate the equivalent amount of seawater, notes the Economist, though of course much of the desalinated water would then have to be shipped uphill from the coast.

 

(Snip)

[Geee]

@Geee

 

 

Yes...And....?

 

 

fracking recycling water

 

As the planets population grows to 7 billion and beyond, and people increasingly migrate to dry, sunny climates such as the American West that have limited supplies of water, clashes between human and commercial needs for water are expected to grow.

I recall reading about this back in the 70's

 

It appears what we have here is yet one more...

 

 

Gloom, despair, and agony on me

Deep, dark depression, excessive misery

If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all

Gloom, despair, and agony on me

 

There are a couple of small companies and a couple of large(Halliburton being one)that have come up with a brand new technology for this. The additional good news for this is that they have found that this is adaptable for reclaiming water from other sources also.

[Valin]

There are a couple of small companies and a couple of large(Halliburton being one)that have come up with a brand new technology for this. The additional good news for this is that they have found that this is adaptable for reclaiming water from other sources also.

Shocking News!!!