China's seawater desalination capacity tops 3 million tons daily

China's seawater desalination capacity has reached 3.077 million tons per day, according to an annua

Doomsider 7 points 7 days ago

3 million tons of fresh water

35 kg of salt per ton of sea water. That means there are 105 million kg of salt or about 115,000 tons of salt. That is a lot of salt.

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yogthos 4 points 6 days ago

win/win :)

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Doomsider 0 points 6 days ago

Yeah, I like fresh water and salt for sure. The issue is that would be 115,000 tons of salt per day. It becomes a problem dumping it back into the ocean and storing it is expensive.

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yogthos 6 points 6 days ago

there are plenty of uses for salt in industry https://maxisalt.com/...

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Doomsider 0 points 6 days ago

Once again that is per day which would be just under 42 million tons in one year. To put that in perspective, it is about 7 great pyramids.

This is just one desalinization plant. Producing fresh water from saltwater has this unfortunate and insurmountable side effect. Dumping back into the ocean is the most realistic solution, but it severely damages the ecosystem.

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yogthos 7 points 6 days ago

And to put that into perspective, industrial salt consumption in China was over 110 million tonnes in 2024. While all the new salt produced won't likely be used, it's not as insane as it might seem at first glance.

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Doomsider 0 points 6 days ago

That is just one plant that produces almost half of what a country of 3 billion uses. That is a lot of salt.

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yogthos 4 points 6 days ago

I'm not saying it's not a lot of salt, but uses can be found for it. And also it means that just one plant can replace all the other salt mining which is presumably an energy intensive industry as well.

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Doomsider 1 point 6 days ago

This is very impractical for a population of 3 billion people. Luckily, China has access to a lot of fresh water.

The reason I mention this is someone was suggesting they could use desalinization plants on the West Coast of the US to help with fresh water. Providing some supplemental water is one thing, but providing the majority of water is extremely problematic in not just energy usage, but also the incredible amount of salt that is produced.

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elixir_fan 2 points 6 days ago

You're doubling China's population

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Doomsider 1 point 6 days ago

You are correct 1.4 billion. Thank you.

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