Liberation of Mineral-Bound Water of the Meridiani Planum Driven by Process Heat from Carbonylation Steel-Making and Concentrated Photovoltaic Electricity Generation
Publication: Earth and Space 2022
ABSTRACT
A proposal is made to liberate water from an extensive reservoir of water bound to hydrated sulfate minerals in a geological structure under the Meridiani Planum called the Burns Formation. This formation of sediments spans the equator, is over 500 km wide, has an area larger than Lake Superior, and has depths typically between 200 m and 1,000 m. About 3 kJ of enthalpy must be transferred into the sediments for each 1 gram of water vapor liberated by dehydrating the sulfates. Relatively large energy requirements are needed to liberate water by the tonne and the kilotonne. A crucial part of the proposal is to link water liberation to power tower concentrated photovoltaic electricity generation and carbonylation steel-making, both of which produce a lot of process heat. This process heat is at suitable temperatures for dehydrating the main sulfate minerals in the Burns Formation. Carbonylation steel-making benefits from an easy-to-use source of hematite that lies in a thin layer on top of soils overlying the Burns Formation. Carbonylation steel-making produces steel powder. Powder sintering to sheet steel plus robotic cutting, welding, and bending then provide a manufacturing capability. Simple electricity generation plants and water liberation plants are described that can be manufactured locally. This makes possible a large power generation capacity on the Meridiani Planum, including a large process heat-generating capacity and a deployment of water liberation equipment that scales with the available process heat capacity.
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Earth and Space 2022
Pages: 343 - 354
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Published online: Jan 5, 2023
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