Applying air to reducing the cost of water conservation with heat reflecting underwater microbubble clouds called 'hydrosols'

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Copyright 2012 Russell Seitz / Mcrobubbles LLC all rights reserved
The contrast between deep dark water and a bright bubble wake
is apparent as a boat passes over a collapsed reef cavern in Belize

2. Earth is not a ‘pale blue dot’
Water is as dark as asphalt -
Reservoirs, rivers, lakes and oceans
all absorb 93% of solar heat
Solar heating drives rapid evaporation, so
we all lose a tonne of stored fresh water
a day. That’s 2.7 trillion tonnes a year.

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THE OBVIOUS WAY OF CURBING
EVAPORATION , COVERING THE
WATER, RUNS AFOUL OF AN
ECONOMIC PARADOX

4. At pennies per ton,
Water is too cheap to conserve
Cutting evaporation does not pay
if a one-acre reservoir cover
costs a thousand times more than
an acre-foot of water

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EXISTING METHODS COST SO MUCH THAT

6. Subsistance farmers can’t afford
to cover reservoirs to save water:
The world’s most typical farmers
are women cultivating under 5 acres
netting less than $ 1,000 a year
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8. Making outdoor water conservation
affordable entails developing
evaporation control technology
that costs less than the water it
saves, which means using the
one material cheaper than water:
AIR

9. Very small air bubbles can brighten water
Pressurizing water can double the air it dissolves, and
pressure release can create a bright underwater mist
called a ‘Hydrosol’ that can cool hectares of water
by reflecting megawatts of solar energy
‘Hydrosols’ are bright dispersions of microbubbles that
work underwater like clouds turned inside out –
Just as cloud droplets are too small to fall fast,
microbubbles are too small to rise quickly
They hang in the water casting cooling shade

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11. REDUCING SOLAR HEATING
SAVES WATER
BRIGHTENING WATER BY 80 WATTS / M2
CUTS EVAPORATION A METER A YEAR :
THAT’S A MEGATONNE PER KM2 , OR
A SHIPLOAD OF WATER PER HECTARE
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CLICK ON SCREEN TO RUN VIDEO
< WATTS PER SQUARE METER
FAST FORWARDED

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14. The impact on water temperature is exponential-

15. Our R&D GOAL IS TO
INCREASE BUBBLE LIFETIME
 A TENFOLD INCREASE IN THE LIFETIME
OF MICROBUBBLES HAS ALREADY BEEN
ACHIEVED IN FOODS AND MEDICINES
A FACTOR OF 10 INCREASE IN HYDROSOL
PERSISTENCE COULD MAKE LOW COST
WATER CONSERVATION A GLOBAL REALITY
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16. Bright Water works like White Roofs, but
can be used on a far larger scale
Earth has 1000 times more
water than urban area
The pond in Central Park
has twice the area of
Manhattan’s white roofs !

17. Climate change is warming reservoirs
three times faster than the oceans
Microbubbles already last long enough
to cover hectares. Making them last
longer could cut the cost of water
conservation to a cent per cubic meter &
save hundreds of billions of tons a year
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20. The next step is outdoor testing on
platforms in China’s Lake Taihu
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Some common misconceptions
It will stop photosynthesis !
The underwater light reduction resembles a cloudy day
bubbles scatter light down as well as up
It will turn the ocean into a bubble bath!
Microbubbles are simply too small to rise . They
create underwater clouds , not suds on the surface
It will destroy the ozone layer !
No! – air-based water conservation has less impact on
atmospheric and water chemistry than the weather

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ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS
More water now:
Lower irrigation costs
Increased hydropower
Improved thermal power efficiency
Cooler cities = less air conditioning
Cool sea water conserves Coral
Carbon Negative
Saving water for the future
Copyright 2017 Russell Seitz / Microbubbles LLC transmission or reproduction without written permission prohibited All rights reserved

23. HYDROSOLS AS CLIMATE INSURANCE
EARTH’S HUNDRED MILLION LAKES & PONDS EXPOSE
~5 MILLION KM2 OF WATER TO SOLAR EVAPORATION
BRIGHTENING JUST A FRACTION COULD SAVE > 10 7
HECTARE-METERS OF AGRICULTURAL WATER A YEAR
MARINE HYDROSOLS HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO SLOW
CLIMATE CHANGE BY REDUCING ARCTIC ICE LOSS
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26. R&D AGENDA
 Study basic processes: 1.5 years $ 1.5m
 Build & test generators 1.5 years $ 3m
 Water brightening pilot experiments
manifolds, spraying & towed arrays
2 years $ 4.5m
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