A new year symbolizes a fresh start. What better way to start the year than to outline the need for fresh water; due to increased population, demand for food, industrial practices, and other environmental concerns. For the next few months, I'll be diving into different types of water capture and generation technologies. This article will introduce the topical series and shine a light on alternative methods to generate freshwater and reuse contaminated water.
Background
Water is an essential resource for all activities of life. 60% of the human body is water, and 70% covers the Earth's surface. The human body requires 8-glasses of it to convert water into nourishment and energy.
Earth's hydrological cycle filters saltwater into the purest form of freshwater
The livestock we raise and plants we grow all require the same nutrients and energy. Wherever water falls, it embodies our surroundings, from limestone absorbing minerals like calcium and magnesium to the Earth's soil contents. Industries worldwide are consuming fresh water at a high rate, and 3% of our water is fresh, 2.5% unavailable, leaving only 0.5% of Earth's fresh water available. The questions remain, where is our water located, and how much is available?
A portion of groundwater is unobtainable at a reasonable cost, signified by an asterisk (*). The chart above outlines all available water sources from around the world. Depicted by the chart, our oceans make up the largest water source, but this is not freshwater. We must utilize technologies like desalination plants to remove the impurities like salt and minerals to convert our oceans into a freshwater source. However, there are several disadvantages to desalination. For example, there are high upfront financial costs to build and maintain these plants. High environmental costs are due to the chemicals used in the purification process for safe human consumption and high energy costs to operate these systems.
The previous chart outlining all available water sources is dominated by how much water is in our oceans. This chart above provides us with a better visual representation of our global water sources, better identifying the scale of water availability when excluding oceans as a potential freshwater source.
Here in this chart above, we can identify all global freshwater sources, excluding saltwater. It is interesting to point out the differences in water availability between groundwater and our ice caps and glaciers. Technology today does not deem the conversion of snow to freshwater as a viable source, but interesting to point every 4 inches of snow contain 1/3 inch of water.
Industries Needing Freshwater
Water is an essential resource for industry. Thermoelectric power (fossil fuels, nuclear, biomass, geothermal, solar, etc.) requires water. Either in manufacturing, storage, or converting thermal energy into electrical energy by heating a fluid to drive a turbine. Public supply systems deliver water to homes and businesses. Domestic water uses a portion of our public supply system for indoor and outdoor household purposes, from brushing your teeth and bathing to preparing food and washing dishes. Wastewater treatment recycles stormwater runoff or used contaminated water. The hydrological water cycle filters our used water from wastewater treatment centers after released into the environment. Other notable industries in need of freshwater highlighted below:
1. Data Centers
As technology advances, the demand for water increases. The most critical piece of infrastructure supporting our daily digital activities is data centers. An estimated 3 million data centers in the US are backing national defense systems, cryptocurrencies, and recreation platforms like social media and streaming services. Multi-tenant data centers, supercomputer systems, and cloud providers use water to (1) generate electricity and (2) cool or maintain a low-temperature for computer storage and telecommunication systems. Every 2 gallons of water generate 1kWh of energy, using 0.48 gallons of water for every kWh consumed. To place in perspective, Google requires 1.5 million gallons of water for one of their data centers in South Carolina. A single cryptocurrency, Bitcoin uses 1.13 billion gallons of freshwater per day based on activity alone.
2. Agriculture and Livestock
A growing global population demands more food. Matching the demand for food requires more water. The current global population is hovering around 7.8 billion people. Based on four fertility scenarios, our population projection to be roughly 10.8 billion people by 2100. The low estimate in this model is 6.8 billion, with the high, constant rate estimate is 28.6 billion. The two water sources for agriculture and livestock purposes are surface and groundwater. The global freshwater use in 2014 was 4-trillion cubic meters (m3) or 141-trillion cubic feet (c3). Demand for water in agriculture is 70% (2.8 trillion m3) of global water use, 8% for livestock (320-billion m3).
3. Mining
Mining is a broad industry, servicing and shaping other industries worldwide. At its core function, it extracts valuable minerals or geological materials from the Earth. Examples of minable resources are (1) fossil fuels, (2) minerals, and (3) water. It’s hard to imagine a time when mining will ever cease to function. We are a world in need of resources, whether for fossil fuels to power homes, silicone for solar panels, boron for agriculture and healthcare, or lithium for batteries. 1% of total water withdrawals were from mining in 2015. Groundwater accounted for 72% of total withdrawals (65% saline water) and 75% of freshwater from surface water.
Conclusion
What can we do today to ensure freshwater is available to match demand? Global freshwater usage is roughly 4 trillion cubic meters (141-billion cubic feet), leaving 0.5% of freshwater available. Agriculture and livestock use is 78% of freshwater. 1% of our global freshwater is required for mining, while 19% (760 billion cubic meters) of freshwater remains for personal and commercial use. Cryptocurrencies using 412 billion gallons (1 billion cubic meters) of global data centers water usage per annum and rising.
Water is the focal point for all life on Earth or when we discuss space exploration. Whether we talk about space colonization, water scarcity in dry arid regions, or the abundance of water coming from weather events like hurricanes, water, and more importantly, freshwater, will always be in the discussion. The increasing demand for food, resources, and dependence on technology directly correlates with our rising population and the need for freshwater. Water conservation shares an important role, but one can argue water generation is vital for the growth and sustained development of future generations.
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