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Evaporation Prevention Using Molecular Blankets
Makarand writes "According to this article in the
New Scientist, a Canadian company is testing a
technology to reduce water evaporation from reservoirs by
spreading an ultra-thin blanket of organic molecules on the surface to block the escape
of water molecules into the air.
Trials conducted in India and Morocco showed between 30 and 45 per cent reduction in evaporation
using this method. However,
the long term ecological effects of reducing evaporation in lakes or reservoirs is not yet clear
as evaporation prevention can increase water temperatures and affect the exchange rates of gases
such as oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide."
won't this increase the algae population ?
the problem with water is distribution not evaporation
see with this level of molecular technology, we can easily tap into the.. hey! whats that over there?
I rally shouldn't post after reading PA.
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Scientists working to stop evaporation accidentally unleash it on the world's ocean. This causes weather around the world to go crazy, and only a group of scientists doing something bizarre can fix it.
That's not a environment destroying oil spill, its a high tech water evaporation prevention film.
same result, you get a nice film on the surface and damages the local ecology plus you can get it from your local gas station
how about spending money on better infrastructure or de-salination plants first ? then you wouldnt need to stop evaporation, remember 80% of the globe is covered with H2O so evaporation is not the problem
Why do we have to control evaporation on large bodies of water already ?
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However, the long term ecological effects of reducing evaporation in lakes or reservoirs is not yet clear as evaporation prevention can increase water temperatures and affect the exchange rates of gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide."
Don't forget possible changes to the weather. For instance, there are a number of areas whose climate and micro-climate are influenced by nearby bodies of water.
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If it also slows down the rate that water can give off heat energy as well as slow the evaporation rate, this would be great for extending the usable season for outdoor pools.
If this prevents evaporation, does it also increase the surface tension of the water? That could make diving into a treated lake a painful proposition.
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Just wait until they make a version that replicates.. so you can pour 1 cup in a lake and in a few days it covers the lake....
Then wait until someone pours a cup of this into the oceans.
Then wait when it stops raining and we all die.
YAY
What's the difference between this "new" system for evaporation prevention and the Liquid Solar Blankets sold in Pool Supply stores? This tech has been used for years!! Course this company has probably jacked up the pricing since this is supposedly "new" once again...
I would think that if water cant get out kinetically then air and nitrogen cant get in. so you can kiss all fish and algea goodbye.
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I'm sure they could use this in the Ural Sea (or whats left of it). Could animals drink through it? If they could I can imagine this being very useful for the thirsty animals during dry seasons in Africa's national parks.
However, the long term ecological effects of reducing evaporation in lakes or reservoirs is not yet clear as evaporation prevention can increase water temperatures and affect the exchange rates of gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide.
This seems like a pretty critical area of the research. If the water becomes stagnant and full of algae or dead fish, what good is it?
This could have unforeseen effects on the local ecosystem.
Unforseen? Maybe if you have your eyes and ears taped shut? Forgive me for being cynical, but it seems so many scientists are out for a little fame and don't see the big pictures.
Call me silly... but, isn't water evaporation part of the cycle of weather? Take out one part and the machine doesn't work. I hope that this "technology" is not used on a large scale. The implications concerning local weather patterns could be devastating.
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I say Saran Wrap. What's the big difference?
Last time I checked, something called "rain" is made possible by evaporation from lakes, resiorvoirs, etc. Wouldn't preventing evaporation prevent rain? Rain happens to be a great way to irrigate fields, and is very good for our environment...
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This would be great for those of us in the intermountain west.
Our reservoirs lose tons of water over the long hot dry days of summer. Add that to the 5 year drought we're in....and it'd help enormously. Of course, that would probably mean boats and jetskis would be off limits during that time, but having water is more important that having fun.
...by spreading an ultra-thin blanket of organic molecules on the surface to block the escape of water molecules...
Are they trying to place a positive ecological spin on oil spils/slicks? Oil is organic, and it does prevent the evaporation of the underlying water.
I recall seeing/reading elsewhere that a few millileters is enough to create a minute slick over several square kilometers.
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We studied this in school. They use large alcohols as the skin (as covered in this article). The point is that it's usually distribution rather than storage that is the problem. (In Melbourne.au the annual evaporation rate is 3m - on a shallow 30m deep dam this means that it would take 10 years to evaporate the water away, assuming none is added. I have some old papers here from the 60s by the then Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works about this idea.
:) but more importantly, the water is actually cleaned by the action of anerobic bacteria on the water.
If you are having problems keeping water due to evaporation then you need to choose a better dam site.
More interesting is a proposal to store stormwater underground. Firstly, the land area and evaporation issues disappear (to be replaced by similar issues
How is this different than having suntan lotion come off in the pool?
Isn't there alot of data on that?
Geez! What are these researchers thinking about.
Then next thing you know, Exxon will be dumping oil from their tankers to mitigate "global evaporation".
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This might also be useful for refineries/chemical plants, etc. that maintain large atmospheric pressure reservoirs of dihydrogen monoxide for fire-fighting purposes.
Ah, just what I need for my new swimming pool...on Arrakis!
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My first thought was the same as yours -- oil on water and asphyxiating fish. But that might not be the case.
They claim that their technique produces a monolayer on the surface. That's a layer one molecule thick. This would easily be disturbed by the slightest motion or breeze. The tiniest ripple would create local openings. In fact, this is probably why their reduction in water loss is so small -- only tens of percent. Lots of water gets out. This implies that lots of gases could also get in. (i.e., gas exchange with the atmosphere would perhaps be inhibited by tens of percent amount.)
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Did they say what kind of thermal conductivity this layer would have? If it was low, then try this on for size:
While having this layer of molecules on the surface, rig up an array of thermoelectric modules (Peltier elements) to conduct the heat that would be trapped on the water and use it to generate enough electricity to be able to drive the water pumps or whatever. I don't know how feasable this would be though since from what I hear the efficiency isn't the greatest in the world...
No beowulf cluster jokes please...
Okay, this sounds to me like vapor ware.
Ok, sorry, had to...but really, doesn't this sound like the setup for a sci-fi world saving movie where the original cause of the disaster was something incredibly stupid a scientist (the one equipping the rescuers) did?
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"My god! Humans spread the oil on the ocean, causing the sea monsters to attack from Atlantis!?!"
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It's kind of annoying that these days, when any new technology arrives, it is subject to a ridiculously paranoid environmentalism filter. Resevoir water is about .0001% of all water on the planet and people are worried about gas exchange and the temperature of it! Enough to deprive populations in the developing world of clean drinking water? I was suprised that the cost of the system wasn't mentioned in the header, only the environmental impact.
From the referenced article: "... saving the water costs less than half the price of replacing it..."
That means that the water-saving layer is VERY expensive, if it is only two molecules thick.
I really wouldn't want them to get to low and I end up drinking some of this goo. Might mess up some of the plumbing ya know?
Mmm..... Organic molecules.....
Don't they already sell stuff like this for swimming pools?
Dump some chemical in the water, it creates a layer at the top to prevent evaporation.
Oh well, exploiting something known for more profit...
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by spreading an ultra-thin blanket of organic molecules on the surface
Isn't this an Oil Slick, some complanies have been doing it for years.
Oops ultra-thin obviously, given oil prices and shortages, they cant afford the old style heavy slicks any more.
Obviously, someone's read "Towards a Citizen's Militia"! I'd have put a link but the text isn't available online. Pity really, it's interesting reading.
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So - can we now have longer snow seasons (Here in NZ we've got about a fortnight before closure) ... or how about preventing the ice caps from turning into giant island-drowning, ship marauding bergs?
[ Me being the software programmer come snowboarder - not attempting to be a meterologist, ofcourse ]
In the book the film is caused by pollution, but it is almost impossible to disperse and remains resistant to the waves and man-made attempts to break up the film. In the end, humanity ends up clinging to life by the edges of the ocean, each person with their own solar-powered desalination plant.
A sobering thought if you've read the book. Imaging what whould happen if this stuff got loose?
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"However, the long term ecological effects of reducing evaporation in lakes or reservoirs is not yet clear as evaporation prevention can increase water temperatures and affect the exchange rates of gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide."
Yes and lets not wory about the small criters in our water ways. These resevoirs are filled with natice fish that are already under threat of other introduced fish and over fishing.
If we want to preserve water we must first look at building the infrastructure to take water far inland where as know in many contrys they use open channel irrigation where ALOT of water evapourates. I've heard that only 20% of the water in open irrigation actualy absorbs into the ground.
Also we must also make it compulsory for water saving devices, such as flow restricters.
An interesting thing i saw on today tonight a while ago whilst in the middle of the last Aussie drought (which we're still pretty much in) was a guy who was using this left over laundry water and sink water and other waters to water his grass and gardins! Its that type of thinking thats going to save water. Things like that should be made compulsory. Some people with plenty of water such as the USA may be laughing, but this our local water resevour was bello 10% and maybe have infact reached 2% or 1%. Its backup resevour was at around 40%, so you could say that there was a few very nervouse people round!
I agree, this seems like a good idea. but one step at a time please!
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I thought they called that "algae"?
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People wanting more info should STF(ree)W for Irving Langmuir or Langmuir-Blodgett monolayers, e.g.,
http://www.woodrow.org/teachers/chemistry/ institutes/1992/Langmuir.html
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"It's pioneering work," adds Moshe Alamaro, an atmospheric scientist and an expert on monolayer applications at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "They are the first commercial enterprise using monolayers [to retard evaporation]," he says. Oh... Solar Fish
Didn't we already try this with the Exxon-Valdez?
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far far more water is lost through leaky watermain systems. investing money in maintaining infrastructure would be far more effective.
For Example in Montreal Canada, one of the largest cities in Canada, 40% of their drinking water is lost before it reaches the customers through leaky watermains!
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Will good old corn oil do the same? I used to use it to insulate capacitors made with salt water - it prevented the ring of corona around the pickle jars. I suppose it may reduce evaporation too.
OK, so we prevent all evaporation... Then we have no clouds... no rain... a huge ocean and all land mass is a desert. Nice!