Disclosed herein is an improved method of brine water treatment including the removal of calcium and/or magnesium-based hardness utilizing CO.sub.2 mineralization resulting in permanent sequestration of the CO.sub.2 via stable precipitates in conjunction with hydrogen and chlorine production from the electrolysis of brine water.

A hydroelectric power generation system includes at least one conduit extending from beneath the sea surface a predetermined depth into the ground below the sea floor level, a turbine connected to an underground distal end of each of the at least one conduit, and an underground reservoir to collect seawater flowing down through the at least one conduit and the connected turbine. The hydroelectric power generation system may be part of a distributed hydroelectric power generation system which includes a plurality of hydroelectric power generation systems, the distributed hydroelectric power generation system additionally including an underground reservoir to collect seawater flowing down through all of the conduits and connected turbines in the plurality of hydroelectric power systems.

Equipment and procedure for extraction of solids from contaminated fluids whose basic purpose is to obtain the crystallised solids from the contaminated fluids, without any type of rejection in order to valorize them and to obtain purified water in a single stage, all in a continuous adiabatic/sonic process with evaporation/crystallisation and with low energy consumption and where the procedure is characterised by being constituted basically by at least three circuits fully interconnected as a single piece of equipment where the first circuit, the principal circuit, is constituted by an inlet duct of the contaminated fluid to be treated (1) followed by a pre-filter (2) followed by a filter for fine particles (3), a heat exchanger of preheated contaminated fluid (5) in the heat exchanger (4), followed by a fluid feedback pump (6) to a nozzle formed by an injector (7) and an ejector (8), which introduce the fluid to an evaporation chamber (9), where the steam that exits is introduced into a closed-loop electromagnetic servomechanism (26), an saturated steam ejector outlet (32), driven to the heat exchanger (4), outlet (13) as purified water from the saturated steam (22).

High energy consumption and the negative impacts of hyper saline brine are the two biggest hurdles to a widespread adoption of seawater desalination. Taking advantage of the principal that fluid pressure increases in direct proportion to depth, this invention reduces energy consumption by relocating the process of reverse osmosis at depths where the weight of the water produces the pressure required to drive the reverse osmosis process thereby eliminating the high costs normally associated with raising intake pressure and by simply varying pumping rates, the brine stream can be pre-diluted to levels slightly above the original thereby reducing environmental impact. The simplicity of the design also reduces the costs of building and installation thereby making it likely that seawater desalination will proliferate around the world.

A water intake and pretreatment system (10) comprising an inlet for delivering water from a natural source to a reservoir (12); said inlet to reservoir having a net screen (16) to prevent entry of organisms above a predetermined size and including a one-way gate (30) to allow organisms to exit the reservoir; said reservoir further comprising a granular filter media for water and algae filtration; and a drainage layer for removal of filtered water from the granular filter media to a drainage outlet. A local backwashing apparatus (40) is included for localized backwashing of the granular filter media.

Self-cleaning electrochemical cells, systems including self-cleaning electrochemical cells, and methods of operating self-cleaning electrochemical cells are disclosed. The self-cleaning electrochemical cell can include a plurality of concentric electrodes disposed in a housing, a fluid channel defined between the concentric electrodes, and an electrical connector positioned at a distal end of a concentric electrode and electrically connected to the electrode. The electrical connectors may be configured to provide a substantially even current distribution to the concentric electrode and minimize a zone of reduced velocity occurring downstream from the electrical connector. The electrical connector may be configured to cause a temperature of an electrolyte solution to increase by less than about 0.5° C. while transmitting at least 100 W of power.

A heating system for use in the solar powered heating of water. In one embodiment, the heating system is used in conjunction with a solar water farm to desalinate water. The water farm can be utilized on a variety of scales and can be applied to agricultural farms for large scale reclamation of deserts.

A method and system for reversibly converting water between an initial ionic strength and an increased ionic strength, using a switchable additive, is described. The disclosed method and system can be used, for example, in distillation-free removal of water from solvents, solutes, or solutions. Following extraction of a solute from a medium by dissolving it in water, the solute can then be isolated from the aqueous solution or “salted-out” by converting the water to a solution having an increased ionic strength. The solute then separates from the increased ionic strength solution as a separate phase. Once the solute is, for example, decanted off, the increased ionic strength aqueous solution can be converted back to water having its original ionic strength and reused. Switching from lower to higher ionic strength is readily achieved using low energy methods such as bubbling with CO.sub.2, CS.sub.2 or COS. Switching from higher to lower ionic strength is readily achieved using low energy methods such as bubbling with air, heating, agitating, introducing a vacuum or partial vacuum, or any combination or thereof.

The invention concerns an underwater water treatment unit which has specific cleaning means which are suitable for cleaning filtration membranes in the unconventional conditions associated with use at great or very great depths, as well as a method for cleaning the membrane of the underwater water treatment unit.

A filtration system using lightweight fibrous media (LFM) that are pre-compressed either 1) manually; or 2) in-situ using hydraulic flow; and where the LFM are forced to separate and relax for cleaning either: 1) manually, 2) in-situ in their filter housing, or 3) in an auto-clean system using separate devices in order to enact a particularly aggressive cleaning process. A plurality of lightweight fibrous media balls are pre-compressed and used to form a single mass that can filter water as the media are compressed by pre-compression before installation, or by water flow pushing on a pre-compression plate during filtration thereby forming a single mass providing multitudes of tortuous paths through which water can flow and the media can capture small particulate matter.