You desalinate ocean water to produce fresh water, which you can use for crops, city utilities, etc. That reduces the strain on local aquifers and reservoirs, especially since California tends to overuse their supply of water (especially poignant for us in Utah; we all rely on the Colorado River).
Hydrogen extraction tends to use pure freshwater to prevent corrosion during the electrolysis process. There has been some research around using seawater directly, but I’m guessing there’s still a fair amount of work yet to do this at scale, and I certainly don’t think we’re there yet for ships.
Ah, I missed what you meant, was thinking just use the excess power as fuel for electrolysis to collect hydrogen tanks out at sea, then use that to store it for use in hydrogen based motors on ships or what not, letting the run off water go back into the ocean, hopefully leaving an equal amount of all elements in the water.
These are two separate processes.
You desalinate ocean water to produce fresh water, which you can use for crops, city utilities, etc. That reduces the strain on local aquifers and reservoirs, especially since California tends to overuse their supply of water (especially poignant for us in Utah; we all rely on the Colorado River).
Hydrogen extraction tends to use pure freshwater to prevent corrosion during the electrolysis process. There has been some research around using seawater directly, but I’m guessing there’s still a fair amount of work yet to do this at scale, and I certainly don’t think we’re there yet for ships.
Ah, I missed what you meant, was thinking just use the excess power as fuel for electrolysis to collect hydrogen tanks out at sea, then use that to store it for use in hydrogen based motors on ships or what not, letting the run off water go back into the ocean, hopefully leaving an equal amount of all elements in the water.
But then thought of the bonds