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Geothermal Vapor Distillation

Harness geothermal energy to vapor distill water.
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With advances in mining technology and geothermal energy production (durable carbon nanowires conducting GTE) and other innovations combined with the worlds increasing water shortage there has never been a better time in history to attempt this.

If dirty water were re-directed to a hole leading under the earth filtered through a sand/ mineral mud barrier via gravity providing an initial cleaning and then the base of potable water to the underground heating chamber to be piped up via steam to an above ground distillation chamber where it can be processed as clean water.

Carbon nanotubes pulling heat/energy up from deeper in the earth to provide an auxiliary heat source to heat the pool of water gathered. In the vat of water filled with carbon for increased heat absorption/evaporation (see link) the process of evaporation and collecting would begin.

While it may be very dangerous to drill deep under the earth and deal with increased pressure high temperatures eventually underground mining drones would help make this more practical.

Updates in carbon nano technology (tubes, particles) have shown a great potential in heat transfer which provide evaporation at lower temperatures. The steam would have to travel a fair distance but if enough pressure was built in the Geothermal Distillation Chamber it would be achievable.

Duck Lagrange, Nov 17 2015

Carbon http://www.scienced...i/S0141391013004321
Carbon conductivity [Duck Lagrange, Nov 17 2015, last modified Nov 18 2015]

Magma is tappable https://theconversa...d-electricity-22515
The problem isn't the temperature of any magma into which you might drill, but the pressure associated with it. If the pressure can be relieved safely (and do keep in mind the Deepwater Horizon disaster, which ONLY had pressure not temperature to contain), then all that magma heat will become quite useful. [Vernon, Nov 18 2015]

magma temps 700 to 1300 c https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magma
What are pressures ? [popbottle, Nov 19 2015]

[link]






       you had me until "carbon nanotubes"
Voice, Nov 17 2015
  

       The steam coming off those places at Yellowstone smells nasty. Wouldn't this water be contaminated with various volatiles? The fracking people know, I bet.
bungston, Nov 17 2015
  

       Maybe just use a ceramic heat exchanger.
travbm, Nov 17 2015
  

       //Carbon nanotubes pulling heat/energy up from deeper in the earth// I suspect that that is technobollocks. "Techno-" inasmuch as carbon nanotubes may be great heat conductors, and "bollocks" in that it would be impractical. Cheaper and better by far to use copper.   

       You didn't really think this one through, did you, [DuckLa]?
MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 17 2015
  

       Wouldn't this just leave all of the impurities trapped below the aquifer to eventually leach up into the water table?   

       I bet carbon would be much more durable than copper in a hot, wet, salty environment.
bungston, Nov 17 2015
  

       I bet a carbon nanotube would last about 2 seconds. There's this thing called carbon dioxide.
MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 17 2015
  

       "Although thermodynamically prone to oxidation, carbon resists oxidation more effectively than elements such as iron and copper that are weaker reducing agents at room temperature." - Wikipedia.
FlyingToaster, Nov 17 2015
  

       [2 fries] That would depend on how deep/far away it was from the water source but the good thing about vapor distillation it gets rid of a wide variety of impurities.   

       [Maxwell] Copper would melt at those extreme temperatures. I wasn't introducing the concept of carbon nanotubes harnessing geothermal energy, which is already in use & development.
Duck Lagrange, Nov 18 2015
  

       //carbon nanotubes harnessing geothermal energy, which is already in use// Citation?
MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 18 2015
  

       "Magma is a complex high-temperature fluid substance. Temperatures of most magmas are in the range 700 °C to 1300 °C (or 1300 °F to 2400 °F), but very rare carbonatite magmas may be as cool as 600 °C, and komatiite magmas may have been as hot as 1600 °C. Most magmas are silicate mixtures." see link
popbottle, Nov 19 2015
  

       Or...skip all that weird stuff and just pump millions of gallons of grain alcohol into a hot springs.
sninctown, Nov 19 2015
  

       [popbottle], in answer to your annotation question, the important point is that volcanic pressures are responsible for such things as blowing the top of Mount St. Helens to smithereens. Normally the weight of ground-mass allows the pressure to build, if there is no regular venting (like, say, happens a lot at Mount Etna). If a long-unvented magma pool is tapped, like, say, the Yellowstone Supervolcano, well, that could be risky in terms of pressures that would need to be handled safely, to prevent a huge disaster, if we wanted to drill thermal energy taps into the magama.
Vernon, Nov 19 2015
  

       // the magama// pah-tee pah-teepee.
MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 19 2015
  

       Yellowstone supervolcano.. huge disaster.. what's not to like?   

       Wouldn't that be a better use of the ISIS pennies, fronting an IPO for this, rather than all that tedious running around shooting people?
not_morrison_rm, Nov 19 2015
  
      
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