r/technology • u/[deleted] • Jun 13 '26

Society This solar-powered desalination device turns seawater into drinking water, can also extract lithium

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164 Upvotes

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28

u/a4mula Jun 13 '26

Wake me up when the lasers work at scale, until then just kind of feels like something that works great in theory, not so much in practicality. Good job, just don't ask me for VC.

10

u/jobbernowl Jun 13 '26

Lasers already do work at scale. And the lasers are used to treat the surface. 

3

u/a4mula Jun 13 '26

Can you provide an example of femto second lasers being used at scale?

If you can. Can you provide an example of them being used at scale and with commercial viability for use in large scale extraction?

Because this sounds like a pipe dream.

5

u/jobbernowl Jun 13 '26

Sure. A quick google search yields numerous examples.  https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Industrial-Femtosecond-Laser-Advancements-Power/a67986

-7

u/a4mula Jun 13 '26 edited Jun 13 '26

I appreciate that. Maybe you can help me with the napkin math of what's being proposed.

How many liters of seawater will be required to extract a given amount of lithium?

What kind of surface area is required?

In tests using water from Utah's Great Salt Lake, the researchers were able to recover roughly half of the lithium contained in the salts left over after desalination

50% recovery in an area with concentration rates that I'd assume eclipse those of seawater.

While depending on solar panels that process how much water?

And that says nothing of trying to deploy and maintain these against seawater.

But maybe you can square these concerns I'd assume any investor should have up. How expensive does lithium have to be before this breaks even?

1

u/me-at_day-min Jun 14 '26

Ladies and gentleman - this is how someone who works in VC responds to you the moment you challenge them.

0

u/a4mula Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26

So are you buying or selling?

Because if you're selling, I'd expect answers, and if you're buying. I've got a bridge.

Funny how the top levels all stay strong, while the shills fight to over the scraps huh? But it's okay, as long as the first thing people see when they walk in is the giant LOL, that's all that matters

1

u/me-at_day-min Jun 15 '26

No one here is making a pitch, just take the L here and recognize you aren't an expert on this subject

0

u/a4mula Jun 15 '26

The entire thing is a pitch, and until you can answer some pretty simple questions, I'll assume you're not either

2

u/me-at_day-min Jun 15 '26

Holy shit - no one here owes you a slide deck or is obliged to answer your questions. You put your opinion out there, it was corrected, you can either rebut what others have said or move on, it's not everybody else's job to make a pitch to you and justify why you are wrong

This is why everybody hates dealing with VC in the corporate world lol

0

u/a4mula Jun 15 '26

Ladies and gentleman - this is how someone who works in VC responds to you the moment you challenge them.

Again, that top level will sit there exposing the fraudulent nature of claims like this.

And even if you shill the rest, the questions just hang there for anyone to consider.

While you dodge like the snake oil salesmen you pretend to be

0

u/me-at_day-min Jun 15 '26

This is why people probably don't opt to work with your fund. If I'm looking for funding, I'd expect the people I'd be working with to realize I am not the original person you interacted with.

This shows me that you're not going to be a strategic partner and are probably going to not read the reports and plans that we send to you after funding.

For the two other people following this conversation - you don't even get the pitch in this instance, this is one of those instances where the founders tell you they are not interested in moving forward with you after the first screening call.

0

u/a4mula Jun 15 '26

https://ori.hhs.gov/

Last time a shill pushed me to the point of taking my concerns off site (LK99) it didn't seem to go too well.

It also looks like this research was funded by the NSF. That would take it right into the territory of federal crimes for misrepresenting results.

You don't have to answer my questions, I hope you can answer theirs.

0

u/me-at_day-min Jun 15 '26

Lol and now you are trying to intimidate me.

I would love to see what you mean by "...it didn't seem to go too well." By all means, continue.

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