A large desalination plant on Bohai Bay has achieved an energy efficiency breakthrough, slashing electricity consumption by more than half while converting millions of tonnes of toxic waste brine into high-value chemical salt. Situated in the Caofeidian industrial zone of Tangshan, Hebei province, the facility recently entered its trial production stage, the state-run Science and Technology Daily reported last month. This technology provides a viable pathway to solving the global challenge of…
Sounds like they didn’t actually lower the absolute energy consumption, but ‘only’ made use of a byproduct to boost the sales. Still a cool achievement if true.
They mention that the other plant used the concentrated sea water to produce soda potash. Soda potash is K2CO3.
Sea water typically contains way more sodium (Na) than potassium (K). If they make use of the potassium only, I would assume that the vast part of the brine is still pumped back into the sea, with all the environment issues tied to that.
Every improvement counts, but at first sight, this smells a bit like greenwashing to me.