Aussies believe in global warming...

The water may freeze, causing problems with piping. The biggest concern is as you stated, corrosion. For chiller assemblies and cooling towers on rooftops of commercial buildings, you have to monkey around with a lot of different chemicals to minimise corrosion

Nu-Calgon: Products: Cooling Tower Water Treatment

Probably not much demand for central boiler systems where you live, but they're literally a life-and-death deal here. You will experience scale, rust, and nasty corrosion of expensive boiler parts unless proper chemicals are treated in

Nu-Calgon: Products: Boiler & Closed System Water Treatment

Perhaps the biggest drawback to using plain old water is efficiency. The dedicated refrigerants are *much* better thermal efficiency. Eg, even in the chemical industry, for heat exchangers they will use a process working fluid instead of water, to minimise corrosion and increase efficiency

http://www.dynalene.com/pdf/DySF.5.2.07.pdf

 

A nice clean shiny control room. The photo resolution isn't very high though. Is that a Siemens Simatic PCS7 or an Emerson PlantWeb control system he is using??

Looks like the Sparks Brothers have good luck with finding women!

 

Ok, I won't

Though I may tease you just a little bit ...

Seriously, I agree with most of your rant

 

Yes, I can see the Sparks Brothers have had good luck with their women ... some guys have *all* the luck

 

.

Sounds better to 'remove the water' before the limestone is added to the mix. Assuming a relatively unpolluted source of seawater, would heavy metals and other contaminants still be a problem? How about a 'first stage' process with only seawater and sunshine as the inputs? It could produce clean water, and provide brine as an input to the rest of the alkili production. This could be part of a new plant, or a replacement for the evaporation ponds of an older one. A smaller scale version might be useful in the third world, or anywhere else the water would be the most valuable commodity.

 

Re: .

If you do that, the chemical reaction will no longer work

The problem isn't the water, it's the feedstock source. Limestone sources in North America can have ferrugenous mercury, sometimes in very high concentrations. I'm unsure if Australia has this issue, perhaps Pat or another Aussie can chime in

The cement industry recognizes that mercury emissions from lime kilns are a problem.

EPA urged to control mercury from cement kilns

Surprisingly, most folks are completely unaware that mercury can be present in limestone

Although that probably wouldn't meet the demands of a modern Alkali facility, it would certainly require much less thermal energy input. In the third world scenario, this process would absolutely work, although potable water output would be modest by current standards

 

Re: .

But if the aim is to produce water and electricity...

My original intent was to learn about producing water, and perhaps electricity, from seawater and sunshine. Asking about the usability of the leftover salt, I've learned something about the Alkili industry. Enough, I think, to conclude that the two aims really aren't all that compatible.

The third world scenario seems closest to what I was thinking. Something robust that will work in remote areas with minimal intervention, to provide people with clean water and some electricity where there is none.

 

Oh, gotcha. Guess I went a wee bit off topic