Deepwater technology: Offshore drinkable water production from subsea karstic aquifersAbstract : The main scope of this paper is to describe the...
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network
Abstract : The main scope of this paper is to describe the possible and secure production method of huge quantities of fresh/drinkable water from subsea bottom springs, by separating this meteoric (in origin) groundwater from the saline seawater. The separation will take place in simple devices by using offshore installations and production technologies already developed in the offshore oil and gas industry.
It is an environmentally friendly and efficient new technique that can be easily implemented, since there is nothing involved that would damage the sea environment and the living ecosystem in near-shore operations.
This method has never been applied before in the world, and is clearly innovative.
In many places around the world, large quantities of meteoric (initially drinkable) water are directed through rivers to oceans or various geological formations, changing its chemical properties as a result, making it inappropriate for covering necessary human primary (i.e. drinking or irrigation) requirements. The demand is growing bigger, especially when combined with climate effects and overpopulation.
In this specific case, the exploitation of the water carried by underground channels (subsurface rivers)—located far from any human activity and therefore avoiding getting close to any pollutant source—leads to sea bottom springs. This source of offshore clean groundwater will be accessible by using petroleum technologies to securely promote its utilization.
Furthermore, by expanding this project’s application, huge quantities of fresh water can be saved and produced worldwide, instead of ending up in the sea and the oceans.
The continuous, uninterrupted flow and "endless" duration of the project is due more to the complicated karst system—created by the erosion of centuries in the inner structure of the mountain—and less to complicated geological formation tectonics, thus contributing to the "installation of an ideal hydraulic system", through which huge amounts of water are fed through "drains" to the bottom of the sea.
Fig. 1. Due to the tectonic study carried out on the nearby mountains with limestone formation prevailing, the aperture at the sea bottom could be explained as a structural event as the one shown above, or as an erosional one leading to karstic phenomena very often to carbonate formations. Image: source.
In this specific case, as a natural phenomenon, large quantities of water continuously flow underground1, ending up at the sea bottom in a place (Fig.1) located near Athens, Greece, Fig. 2.
Attached link
https://www.worldoil.com/news/2023/9/1/deepwater-technology-offshore-drinkable-water-production-from-subsea-karstic-aquifersTaxonomy
- Aquifer
- Karst Hydrogeology