Desalinating Ocean Water

[gamowin]

As I'm sure you know, we need clean water for not only drinking but for many other industries to function. We often use fresh water at a much faster rate than it is being purified through the water cycle, causing the water level of lakes and rivers to decrease. The world's main source of electrical power is coal and other fossil fuels, we extract the energy from these sources by burning them, which heats up water, becomes steam, turns turbines, then generators. Nuclear power plants do the same thing, you can even see the steam coming out of the cooling towers. So what if we were to use seawater in the energy production process, and simply let the steam re-condense into a reservoir, then we would be able to produce electricity and fresh water in one facility. Would this work, or is it unfeasible for some reason?

[AngelLestat]

many thermal plants already do this, its secondary function is to produce potable water. There are many cogenerating process that can include this increasing the overall efficiency of the system.

The problem that not all thermal plants are close to the sea.

[Guest]

As I'm sure you know, we need clean water for not only drinking but for many other industries to function. We often use fresh water at a much faster rate than it is being purified through the water cycle, causing the water level of lakes and rivers to decrease. The world's main source of electrical power is coal and other fossil fuels, we extract the energy from these sources by burning them, which heats up water, becomes steam, turns turbines, then generators. Nuclear power plants do the same thing, you can even see the steam coming out of the cooling towers. So what if we were to use seawater in the energy production process, and simply let the steam re-condense into a reservoir, then we would be able to produce electricity and fresh water in one facility. Would this work, or is it unfeasible for some reason?

You'd have to put all of your power stations next to the sea. This is pretty unsafe out of Europe (massive generalisation but on this scale is OK). Also there are incredibly strict laws about what temperature+volume the water coming from nuclear power plants must be. This came up at a meeting a few weeks ago when discussing the local impact of a nuclear power station being built a few miles away from me.