Month: January 2021

Water scarcity is one of the top five global risks to human wellbeing. The situation is dire in arid areas. Conventional sources such as snowfall, precipitation, river runoff and easily accessible groundwater are affected by climate change, and supply shrinks as demand increases.

In these countries, water is a critical challenge for sustainable development and a potential cause of social unrest and conflict. Water scarcity also affects traditional seasonal human migration routes and, along with other factors of water insecurity, could change migration patterns.

Arid countries need a fundamental change in planning and management. We are looking at how this can be achieved through the creative use of unconventional water resources.

From the ocean floor to the upper atmosphere, we have a multitude of water resources that can be tapped. However, to get the most of it, a variety of technological interventions and innovations are required.

Catch fog. Aqualonis, author provided

Catch fog

Water embedded in fog is increasingly viewed as a source of drinking water in arid areas where fog is intense and regular. Fog can be collected using a vertical mesh that intercepts the stream of droplets. This water then flows into a water collection, storage and distribution system.

Various types of screen materials can be used in mist collectors, e.g. B. aluminum, plastic, plexiglass and alloys. The success of such a system depends on the geography and topography, which must be conducive to optimal interception of fog. However, this could work in arid mountain and coastal regions.

With the active engagement of local communities and technical support from local institutions, fog water use is a low maintenance option and an environmentally friendly technology for providing drinking water. Fog water collection projects have been carried out in various parts of the world, including Chile, Eritrea, Israel, and Oman.

Cloudseed

Under the right conditions, rain reinforcement from cloud seeds can increase the volume of water from the air. With this technology, small particles are distributed in clouds or in their surroundings. These particles serve as the starting point for raindrops or ice crystals and promote their formation. This in turn increases the chance of rain or snow.

The application of cloud seeding technology in different countries has shown that rainfall can be increased by up to 20% of the annual norm depending on the available cloud resources and types, cloud water content and base temperature. Since only up to 10% of the total cloud water content is released into the ground as precipitation, there is great potential for rain improvement technologies to increase precipitation in arid areas.

Minimize evaporation

Since there is little rainfall in dry areas, rainwater harvesting in micro-catchment areas can help catch rainwater on the ground where it would otherwise evaporate.

There are two main types of micro-basin rainwater harvesting systems. One of these is the use of water through roof systems, in which the runoff is collected and stored in tanks or similar devices. This water is used domestically or for irrigation of farm animals.

The second is water use for agriculture, in which the rainwater that flows from a catchment area is collected in a small reservoir or in the root zone of a cultivated area. The catchment area can be natural or treated with a material that prevents the soil from absorbing water, especially in areas with sandy soils. Due to the intermittent nature of the runoff, it is necessary to store the maximum amount of rainwater during the rainy season so that it can be used later.

Dry areas have to absorb all the rain they get. Theib Oweis ICARDA, author provided

Desalinate sea water

Desalination removes salt from seawater or brackish water to make it drinkable. This enables us to collect water that goes beyond what is available from the water cycle and to ensure a constant supply of high quality water, regardless of the climate.

Seawater desalination has increased faster due to advances in membrane technology and materials science. These advances are expected to result in a significant decrease in production costs by 2030.

It is expected that more places will rely on desalinated water due to falling costs and rising costs of conventional water resources. While desalination currently accounts for around 10% of the municipal water supply in urban coastal centers worldwide, it is expected to account for 25% by 2030.

Iceberg harvest

Towing an iceberg from one of the polar ice caps to a country with water scarcity doesn’t seem like a practical solution to water scarcity, but scientists, scientists, and politicians are considering harvesting icebergs as a potential source of freshwater.

The United Arab Emirates and South Africa are investigating iceberg towing. Nicholas Sloane Southern Ice Forum, author provided

Moving an iceberg across the ocean is technically possible based on a theoretical four-part process. It would require finding a suitable source and supply, calculating the required towing power requirements, accurately predicting melting during transport, and assessing the economic viability of the entire business. Countries like the United Arab Emirates and South Africa are considering iceberg towing as an option to fill gaps in water demand and supply.

Water and climate change are linked, so climate change increases the likelihood of extreme droughts in arid areas. Harnessing the potential of unconventional water resources can help increase the resilience of arid communities to climate change while diversifying water supply resources.

We need to identify and promote functional systems of unconventional water resources that are environmentally friendly, economical and support the achievement of water-related sustainable development in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and beyond.

This article by Manzoor Qadir, Deputy Director of the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, and Vladimir Smakhtin, Director of the United Nations University Institute of Water, Environment and Health, was published by The Conversation under a Creative Commons License republished. Read the original article.

Read On: The Pros And Cons Of EV Batteries That Fully Charge In 5 Minutes

Israeli company StoreDot recently announced that it can now mass-produce batteries for electric vehicles that can be fully charged in just five minutes. “The bottleneck in extra-fast charging is no longer the battery,” said the company’s managing director. But is this fast-charging battery really a game changer? And if so: exactly how?

Electric vehicle charging speeds are a minefield and can be difficult to understand. The latest models report peak charge rates in excess of 900 mph, but the average rate when charging 10% to 80% of the battery capacity is usually around half. The last piece of the battery is surprisingly difficult to “stuff”: Beyond 80% and outside of normal operating temperatures, fast charging slows down dramatically.

Even if you understand the capabilities of your car and its battery, the capacity of the charger itself will also limit the charge rate. In the UK, for example, there are only a handful of what we now consider “ultra-fast” chargers that can deliver over 100 kilowatts.

Most people drive well under 50 miles a day. With modern electric cars that can travel more than 200 miles on a single charge, they only need to be turned on once or twice a week. For around 60% of households with off-street parking, this can be done overnight outside of peak hours. Even if you feel like driving the full length of the UK from Land’s End to John O’Groats, today you can do so with a 30-40 minute break every 2-3 hours.

For those who can’t top up at home, there are already other options like topping up at work or quick topping up during your weekly business. There is little doubt that we could introduce electric vehicles without such high charge rates, but that depends on behavioral changes when it comes to “refueling”. Five minute charging removes a perceived barrier for many and makes the adoption of electric vehicles a much easier choice for those who do not have access to home charging.

Another major advantage comes from longer journeys. Few people currently own electric cars, so it is rare to see fast chargers on the go. However, this is likely to change over time. Tesla drivers who leave California on Thanksgiving can already wait hours for chargers. Will similar bottlenecks occur globally if the rest of us catch up with the early adopters of Silicon Valley? Charging for five minutes would reduce the number of fast charging points required at a gas station by a factor of ten, which would likely also improve economics, since fast charging points are expensive. The hardware alone costs tens of thousands of dollars.

Higher charge rates may not necessarily mean the need for larger network infrastructure at the charging hubs, as fewer cars would be charged at the same time. However, StoreDot states that it will add 300 miles of range in five minutes, suggesting charging rates are approaching 1 megawatt, three times the rate of the fastest chargers available today. This is a significant drain of electricity and therefore it is unlikely that you will find such chargers on every street corner or at every existing gas station. The necessary substations and cables etc. are just not there. Such high charging powers also require a new design of the car connector and potentially cooled cables that are bulky and difficult to handle. Perhaps wireless charging needs to become the norm.

Can the network handle super-fast charging?

Electric vehicles can overload local networks and sudden increases in demand can cause problems for power producers. When cars are mainly charged overnight or during the day using slower chargers, as is currently the case, these problems are relatively easy to deal with. However, when high-speed charging means commuters power their cars on the way to and from work, that concentrated demand for electricity coincides with the existing peaks in demand. As intermittent renewable energies become more prevalent, this could cause major problems for grid operators as no one can order the wind to blow or the sun to shine in comfortable morning and evening blasts.

Electric cars pose some problems for intermittent renewables. Pedrosala / Shutterstock

Currently, electric vehicles are seen as a potential means of handling this disruption through controlled charging and even through the vehicle-to-grid, which allows car batteries to feed power back into the grid during periods of low generation. Widespread adoption of fast charging instead of home and work charging would reduce the capabilities for this type of system management.

Charging batteries quickly can also reduce the environmental impact of cars and other battery devices. For most drivers who only make long journeys occasionally, a car with a smaller, lighter battery that is also more efficient and cheaper may be more appealing because the charging stops are less inconvenient. This could have a positive impact on other battery uses as well: maybe you don’t need two batteries for your power tools when you can charge in just a minute?

Ultimately, this could mean fewer batteries are needed, and therefore less environmental damage from extracting and manufacturing the materials. While the five-minute charge isn’t a complete game changer, it does make the transition to electric vehicles easier.

This article by Rachel Lee, PhD Student, Electric Vehicles, University of Sheffield and Solomon Brown, Lecturer in Chemical Engineering, University of Sheffield, is republished by The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Published January 31, 2021 – 10:00 UTC