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Started By
Message
re: Corpus Christi: Town Is an Energy Powerhouse. It’s Running Out of Water
Posted on 10/13/25 at 9:20 am to Powerman
Posted on 10/13/25 at 9:20 am to Powerman
quote:
They already have Kiewit 50 million for the desal plant. The city council voted it down because they're morons.
San Diego voted the desal plants down too. Their argument was the dead areas at the end of the discharge pipes they cause on the sea floor.
0
Posted on 10/13/25 at 9:23 am to GumboPot
quote:
Because it's expensive.
This is basically the answer to every question involving "why does industry do/not do XYZ" once you dig down deep enough.
Why won't plants in BR use the river water instead of the aquifer water? Why won't plants in CC use desalinated water? Why can't they safely get rid of the sludge? Why don't they used closed cooling loops? On down the line. The answer is "because it costs more than the way they are currently doing it".
And I don't mean that in any insulting way. One wouldn't expect a business to intentionally make their lives more difficult while simultaneously costing them more money.
But I speak from experience as someone who used to do the "hur dur just desalinate the water you idiots" bit, once you do a bit of reading, you realize that all of the "simple, common sense" solutions people propose typically aren't.
Posted on 10/13/25 at 9:26 am to 777Tiger
The Saudi's are the world leader in de-sal currently, about 70% of their drinking water comes from it. They have a few things going for them: plenty of money, less restrictions for dumping it into the sea, and the fact it is about the only option they have given they are in a desert. They are coming up with ways to extract several minerals from the brine that make it somewhat less toxic, they can then turn around and sell the extracted minerals to offset the cost of the process.
Posted on 10/13/25 at 9:28 am to ragincajun03
Clearly , the price of ground water is still cheaper than de-sal water
Posted on 10/13/25 at 9:48 am to cbree88
Desalinization takes a lot of energy. I know they do it in Israel and Austraila
Posted on 10/13/25 at 9:59 am to LSUDad
quote:
Too bad there isn’t a nearby water, oh wait, what are they doing with the Gulf Of America?
Hint: Desalination is the process of removing dissolved salts and impurities from ocean water to make it drinkable and usable for agriculture. The two main desalination techniques are thermal and membrane-based.
Did you know Exxon Refinery in Baton Rouge removes Mississippi River water and uses it in their refinery operations?
What a rube. So many of you "I'm the smartest guy in the room" types chiming in. Never change, internet. Never change.
This post was edited on 10/13/25 at 9:59 am
Posted on 10/13/25 at 10:01 am to TxWadingFool
two thoughts......Industries in Corpus use 75 % of the water, yet the planning for the water is done by the municipality, that does not have the technology, capital, or project management skills to do the job. Roles need to be flipped to hold the Industrials responsible.
......Exxon/Sabic built a Baton Rouge, {Mississippi River water} style plant in Corpus Christi, which is a desert from a water shed point of view. Sabics first ethylene plant of similar size was started up in Al-Jubail SA in 1985, using fin fan condensers for the 85,000 hp collective turbine exhaust and almost total water recovery. The Corpus Exxon/Sabic plant uses evaporative cooling towers instead, resulting in a massive amount of moisture rejected to the air. A quick HP to latent heat ratio indicates this loss of clean water to the air could be 20 million gallons per day.
......Problem stems from the fact that water is priced several decimal points to low to have an impact on Industrial Companies. Compared to raw material, energy, labor costs water is relatively free.
The fix? Price the industrial water supply at incremental replacement cost. And do a citizen audit of each of the industrials to verify that use of water meets industry standards for a desert application.
......Exxon/Sabic built a Baton Rouge, {Mississippi River water} style plant in Corpus Christi, which is a desert from a water shed point of view. Sabics first ethylene plant of similar size was started up in Al-Jubail SA in 1985, using fin fan condensers for the 85,000 hp collective turbine exhaust and almost total water recovery. The Corpus Exxon/Sabic plant uses evaporative cooling towers instead, resulting in a massive amount of moisture rejected to the air. A quick HP to latent heat ratio indicates this loss of clean water to the air could be 20 million gallons per day.
......Problem stems from the fact that water is priced several decimal points to low to have an impact on Industrial Companies. Compared to raw material, energy, labor costs water is relatively free.
The fix? Price the industrial water supply at incremental replacement cost. And do a citizen audit of each of the industrials to verify that use of water meets industry standards for a desert application.
Posted on 10/13/25 at 10:15 am to WavinWilly
quote:
Desalination technology seems like an area ripe for development.
We should be building hurricane-rated nuclear facilities along every coast. The up-front costs are expensive but the long term benefits… including water production… are massive.
Posted on 10/13/25 at 10:17 am to GumboPot
quote:
Gulf Coast Growth Ventures, Valero and the ExxonMobil / SABIC Ethylene Plant
GCGV and Exxon/Sabic is the same thing.
So, I worked on both the GCGV/Exxon/Sabic project and the Tesla project.
Everyone local hates the desal idea for exactly the reasons listed. Will destroy the small bays and coastal areas via the discharge, not to mention they have already been dredging this area forever.
GCGV did a really good job as far as closed looped systems and repurposed any type of cooling/heating in the process units to make it one of the most "efficient" projects I've been a part of. They just need a ton of cooling water.
Tesla on the other hand, has a very " we do what we want" philosophy on all things.
Will be interesting to see what shakes out with all the industry in the area.
Posted on 10/13/25 at 10:21 am to Joshjrn
quote:
This is basically the answer to every question involving "why does industry do/not do XYZ" once you dig down deep enough.
Of course.
It's always the answer even when you have full knowledge of the available resources. The motivation is to access resources as cheap as possible.
When the local water treatment facility is communicating to the local media that resources are tight right now due to drought, that is a warning signal to high water users to either change your behavior or pony up for more infrastructure to produce more water.
Posted on 10/13/25 at 10:29 am to GumboPot
quote:
Of course.
It's always the answer even when you have full knowledge of the available resources. The motivation is to access resources as cheap as possible.
When the local water treatment facility is communicating to the local media that resources are tight right now due to drought, that is a warning signal to high water users to either change your behavior or pony up for more infrastructure to produce more water.
Or to start planning their next facility somewhere with cheaper water while dragging their feet on anything that would affect their current status quo for the life of their current facility. The major industrial players in Baton Rouge have been following this playbook for decades. If we don't let them destroy our access to the aquifer, they will leave.
Ignoring, of course, that once that aquifer access is destroyed, they will leave, regardless...
Posted on 10/13/25 at 10:31 am to YouKnowImRight
What do we do with the brine?
Posted on 10/13/25 at 10:35 am to cbree88
We need to leave the gulf alone.
Posted on 10/13/25 at 10:37 am to Joshjrn
They need to use closed loop cooling. I don't understand why "industry" is so opposed to it. What is being done with aquifer water right next to the mississippi river is stupid.
Posted on 10/13/25 at 10:38 am to ThirdCoast13
evaporative cooling in a desert is the Least efficient cooling possible when water is not available. In the drought discussion, Exxon / Sabic is in the last quartile of water conservation.
Posted on 10/13/25 at 10:46 am to ragincajun03
quote:A&M is right up there with road
It's much more important to study the homosexual tendencies
Posted on 10/13/25 at 10:50 am to DownshiftAndFloorIt
quote:
They need to use closed loop cooling. I don't understand why "industry" is so opposed to it. What is being done with aquifer water right next to the mississippi river is stupid.
In the short term, a closed loop cooling system is vastly more expensive than nearly-free aquifer water. Every time the city-parish brings up charging them more, they scream until the politicians back down.
Posted on 10/13/25 at 10:52 am to Joshjrn
Yea, I know.
Convert to closed loop or leave. I don't care either way. That water tastes too good to be used for cooling industrial shite when there's an infinite heat sink available right there.
Convert to closed loop or leave. I don't care either way. That water tastes too good to be used for cooling industrial shite when there's an infinite heat sink available right there.
Posted on 10/13/25 at 11:23 am to MyRockstarComplex
quote:
They got that down to a science. Distribution/elimination of brine sludge is where it’s at.
Separate the brine into an acid stream and a base stream with electrolysis.
Divert the base stream to the ocean, absorb more CO2 from the air. (Gain Carbon Credit $$)
Sell off the acid byproduct. ($$)
Posted on 10/13/25 at 11:26 am to ragincajun03
Just wait till all these data centers come online. These towns signing these deals will be in the same boat, as they consume insane amount of water and they always use the municipality water, as it's cheaper than filtering themselves
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