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Using Molten Salt to conserve energy for water distillation

by Jeremy Iloulian | 8:35 am December 22nd, 2010 | 6 Comments »
Categories: Engineering, Geothermal, Solar
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I am a sophomore at George Washington University double majoring in Environmental Studies and International Affairs.

The main problem with solar panels is how you use energy at night. Batteries are one option, but are costly and the environmental risk of disposing of batteries is high. One alternative option is to use salt. What would occur is during the day there would be tanks full of this sodium and potassium nitrate mix. They would absorb energy from the sun to heat up the salt and in turn melt the mixture. Since it takes a lot of energy to melt salt the energy could stay within the tanks and provide power for weeks if there is not a lot of sun for that period of time. The other benefit to using molten salt for power is that it nearly is an unlimited resource. To get this salt mixture one could just distill saltwater from the ocean or regions like Great Salt Lake. While the distilling process takes energy, the energy produced from the molten salt would outweigh that used by the distilling process. Also after the water is distilled it would provide an extra source of freshwater for drier regions of the country like in Utah near Great Salt Lake or Southern California near the ocean. Molten salt provides another source of energy for solar power is offline at night or during a cloudy day without the environmental effects of batteries while at the same time providing more freshwater for drier regions of the country. Also many countries rely heavily on distilled water, especially in the Middle East. Instead of dumping the salt back into the ocean, which is not good for the ocean necessarily, would be to use it for this molten salt idea.

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6 Responses to “Using Molten Salt to conserve energy for water distillation”


  1. On January 2nd, 2011 at 5:52 pm Bighorn Said:

    Molten Salt comes with a variety of environmental issues.

    For concentrated solar power, molten salt presents hazardous waste issues concerning the multi-thousand acre facilities they are trying to build on public lands. This is why it is very difficult to get one of these plants permitted in California.

    Molten salt designs are also very water intensive. Most of these outdated solar facilities that will use molen salt tend to use a minimum of 600 acre feet of water per year. That is under the dry cool design. This is mostly for cooling and mirror washing. All of the molten salt power tower designs and parabolic trough designs are being built in arid regions of the west where the water use is over appropriated. Big solar energy dries up springs, wet lands and aquifers.

    And it’s not worth all of the environmental damage. Solar developers looking for multi-billion federal handouts will tell you molten salt can produce power 24/7. BIG LIE. Molten salt can get up to 6 hours on a long, hot, cloud free summer day. Best case scenario. Molten salt is good for when a cloud passes over, but can not run 24/7.

    All a big myth from a guy who thinks climate change is the only environmental issue. Your cure is worse than the disease!


  2. On January 14th, 2011 at 10:54 pm Ira Sorkin Said:

    Let’s not put down Jeremy. He may have his facts wrong, but his heart seems to be in the right place. And at least he is thinking about the problem and trying to come up with a solution. That seems to be the whole purpose for websites like this one. We can all get together and build a better world.

    Which is a lot more than the majority of people out there are doing who just complain and do nothing.

    Thanks to Bighorn who seems to know his stuff. I just visited his website and will bookmark it and be visiting again.


  3. On February 17th, 2011 at 6:37 pm Robert Steinhaus Said:

    Molten Salt is excellent heat transfer and heat storage medium. Unlike hot water or steam based systems, molten salts will flow through a solar heater at very low pressures (1 atmosphere) so any plumbing breakdowns tend to be safe (non-explosive). The same cannot be said for systems based on high pressure and high temperature steam.
    It is not necessary to pour molten salts onto the ground. The best way to use molten salts is in a “closed loop” system where the salt is heated in the solar concentrator and then hot salt is transferred to an insulated tank that stores the heat for use when it is needed.
    For low temperature operation, such as is typical for solar application, normal NaCl slat is not satisfactory as the melting point of this material is above 800 degrees C (1474 degrees F). Potassium Nitrate salts stay molten at lower temperatures and are more practical to consider.
    In a closed molten salt system where the salt is constantly heated and reused so there is no environmental damage and no environmental impact. Potassium Nitrate is cheap and plentiful and relatively non-corrosive but many other good salt mixtures are possible.
    One of the better and more experienced molten salt designers provides much more additional supporting information:
    Dr. Charles Forsberg – http://www.ornl.gov/sci/scale/pubs/SOL-05-1048_1.pdf


  4. On June 24th, 2011 at 8:45 pm Yvonne Said:

    Does anyone know that we have been controlling the weather since the 1970s ? One of the reasons we won the Vietnam war was because this country invested in making rain and a lot of it -


  5. On June 24th, 2011 at 8:49 pm Yvonne Said:

    I have an idea for railroads – Remember the manual two man pump car on
    the railroad lines (you can observe in old cartoons too*) Anyway there are
    several ways in which one can make an engine that is manual – And
    currently due brand new materials that are very light weight the
    friction of these rail cars would be null actually if made appropriately
    - another method is the above which uses air into piston like mechanisms
    something like the old steam engines -


  6. On June 25th, 2011 at 2:14 pm Joel Goldberg Said:

    Yvonne,

    Could you explain what you’re referencing in regard to “weather” during the Vietnam War? Also, there is an ongoing discussion as to who–if anyone–”won” that particular affair.

    Do you have an idea related to the molten salt discussion? What about an #EnergyToDo that the U.S. Secretary of Energy has yet to address?

    If so, I recommend you visit our webisode “Energy Secretary Bill Nye?” to enter the conversation there.

    Thanks for the input!
    Joel

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