IBU

Consol

Mediterranean to Dead-Sea Project
A hydro electric power generating syphon pipe[s] &/or canal &/or tunnel from Mediterranean Sea to Dead- Sea[s]

Calculation of value of electricity to be generated, even if just replacing what evaporates

This is www.berklix.com/~jhs/txt/dead_sea.html

by Julian H. Stacey of Vector Systems Ltd

More profit if one also partly re-filled the Dead Sea:

• Partly from obviating loss of property value along the collapsing border of the Dead- Sea (as salt pillars dissolve from occasional rain).
  
• Dead- Sea would evaporate faster (allowing a faster more profitable re-fill rate), if raising the Dead- Sea increased volume, & reduced the salinity & thus increased evaporation
  Deduced from:
  • https://www.quora.com/Does-salt-water-evaporate-faster-than-tap-water "The higher the salt concentration the lower the evaporation rate."
  • https://www.researchgate.net/post/Does_Salt_Water_Evaporate_Faster_Than_Fresh_Water "fresh water always evaporates faster than salt water"
  • Salt increases the boiling point of water, which we see when we chuck salt in the cooking (From a chemist friend)
• The evaporating surface at Dead Sea level will increase if the Sea rises, This should initially more than outweigh the slight loss of difference in heights.
• Land height contour lines.

More Spin Off wealth:

Politics

• Best include the Palestinians & Jordanians in on the investment, planning, building & maintenance work & profits. An incentive for peace & co-operation
• Include the oil rich Saudis & other Arabs in investment discussions, They may like the PR of diversifying some investments to their local area to also benefit Arabs in Jordan & Israel to stabilise some in impoverished areas so less want to migrate.
• As there's periodic political & violent instability in Israel, Gaza Strip & West Bank will have some wondering if a route is more viable just in Israel, here's links to geographic areas:
  • Gaza Strip
  • West Bank
  • Israel
  • The other geographic factor is height contour lines

Calculation & Facts

• en . wikipedia . org / wiki / Dead_Sea

  • 430.5 metres (1,412 ft) below sea level
  • 50 km long & 15 km wide at widest point
  • "main, northern basin is 50 kilometres (31mi) long and 15 kilometres (9mi) wide at its widest point" (50 x 15 = 750, less allowing for non rectangular, narrower at ends)
    "its surface area today is 605 km2 (234 sq mi), having been 1,050 km2 (410 sq mi) in 1930"
    Question: is the 605 km2 just the main northern basin, or including the southern basin ? The Southern Basin seems to be about 50% of the Northern. Could that then be about 900 km2 ?
    Searching finds: www . saltworkconsultants . com / dead - sea - middle - east /
    "The Dead- Sea water surface defines what is the deepest continental position (-420 m asl) on the earth's current terrestrial surface. It is our only modern example where bedded evaporitic sediments are accumulating on the floor of a deep brine body, where water depths are measured in hundreds of meters. Overall, this salt-encrusted depression is 80 km long and 20 km wide, has an area of 810 km2, is covered by a brine volume of 147 km3 and occupies the lowest part of a drainage basin with a catchment area of 40,650 km3.
    
    However, falling water levels in the past few decades mean the permanent water mass now only occupies the northern part of the lake, while saline anthropogenic pans occupy the southern basin so that the current perennial "Sea" is now only some 50 km long."
  • volume per year evaporating: = 605,000,000 cubic metre
  • A canal/pipe will need some gradient to flow - Guess a 30 metres drop ? (Later calculate the gradient & drop).
    One can't build turbines right down on the edge of the Dead- Sea, where shallow land is unstable with sink holes (+ the Dead- Sea may rise not sink with this project!), so allow some loss of height for shallow run off after last turbine, & allow some extra height loss for intermediate pools, so allow 50 meters ? So drop for turbines is 350 metres.
  • volume per year x density x drop height = energy per year.
    Sea water is a bit heaver/ denser than pure water, but approx the same.
    1 cubic metre 1,000 decilitre, each decilitre is 1 kg.
    Assume gravity is 10 Newtons per Kg (its actually 9.8)
    1 year = 365 x 24 x 60 x 60 = 8,760 hours = 31,536,000 seconds
    1 newton metre = 1 joule
    1 joule / sec = 1 watt
    605,000,000 x 1,000 x 10 x 350 Nm / 31,536,000 secs =
    605,000,000 x 10 x 350 Nm / 31,536 secs =
    67,145,484 Watts
    ( 67 Mw is quite small, eg Hungary is planning 2 x 1,200 MW nuclear reactors. ) 67 Megawatt x 8,760 hours = 588,194 Mega-Watt hours
    x 50 US $ per megawatt hour ? = 29.4 million dollars per year.
    I invite checking of figures
  • LATER to search: generators are not 100% efficient, but largely so, no allowance deducted for that.
  • A big inefficiency would be if water was pumped up to a canal above sea level, but some of that expenditure of energy expense would be recovered on the Dead- Sea end, as extra drop height. & The pumps would be running on cheap electricity supplied by the Dead- Sea end.
  • If pipes too expensive. canals & viaducts (like Romans used) across flat higher land if one used electricity generated from the drop down to the Red Sea, to power pump up from Mediterranean to canal.
  • LATER to search: what are percentage efficiency losses in Large generators & pumps ?
  • If 430 metre drop is too much for strength of pipes of a syphon, no problem, either just use whatever drop is optimal, either direct on to first generators, then venting into a small lake then drop that water down another pipe to another generator station. Or have a first small drop from the syphon into a top pool, then pipe it in a drop down to 1st generators.
  • A Long tunnel

• Electricity Prices

  • www . linkedin . com / pulse / reaping - rewards - competition - why - israels - power - market - needs - beelitz
    35 to 50 US dollar per Megawatt hour
    I seem to recall hearing on BBC 2022-12-13 that in 2021 the UK wholesale electricity price was 50 pounds a Megawatt hour ? This year (2022?) it was 100, but 2 days ago (2022 or pre 2023-03, during Putin's murderous Russian invasion of Ukraine, sparking energy & food crises) it was 600 spot price. Chart Here
    At end of Jan. 2025-01 most European spot prices are about 100 GBP / MWh
    Exchange rates here
  • About 80 km between the Mediterranean & Dead- Sea, view maps: Google and openstreetmap

• Building Costs : Pipe / Canal / Tunnel & possible combinations

  High. Depends on route etc. Not worth figuring all alternate complex cost that will depend on lots of factors, until we've first calculated the value of electricity that could be generated which is easier to calculate. The electricity generated cost may then rule out some over priced build options, & save considering them at least here.
  Only generating earning & building & operating profits are all calculated, can can ROI = Return On Investment be calculated.

• Land height contour lines a

  • Pipe lines are obviously less dependent than canals, on land contour lines. (That could be calculated by contour survey. One might start here or here or search other contour/relief sites).

• If Tunnel is the chosen option, it's building cost.

  At 80km, I guess maybe a bit more than the 57 km https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotthard_Base_Tunnel, depending on rock geology. OTOH cheaper labour ? a single mere water tunnel wouldn't need all the expense of 2 bidirectional tunnels & a central escape tunnel & no cabling in the tunnel. Maybe just occasional primer pools & pumps & power cable all up at surface level ?

• Gradient:

  Whether a tunnel or a syphon (ie sealed tube, with Dead- Sea end lower than Mediterranean), some gradient is needed to keep a pipe flowing (& more gradient for more speed).
  • drainageconsultantsltd . co . uk / about - drains / drainage - gradients - falls/
    • Gradients from 1 in 40 to 1 in 110 will normally give adequate flow velocities.
    • The above is for sewers containing solids (that they recommend to start planning at 1 in 80)
    • But this Mediterranean to Dead- Seas project is for clean sea water, so take a guess at 1 : 200. 1/ 200 of 80 km = 80,000 / 200 = 400 metres. That's near all of the 430.5 m. level of the Dead- Sea !
      LATER to search Hydrology : How flat can a tunnel or canal of clean water run ?
    • https://www.eolss.net/sample-chapters/C07/E2-12-04-01.pdf : "Old Croton Aqueduct (OCA) and completed in 1842 from the Croton River to New York City. The gradient of 0.00014 "
    • https://ww w.eolss.net/sample-chapters/C07/E2-12-04-01.pdf : "New Croto Aqueduct, also 0.00014"
  • Slope: 2023-09 I think I heard a German documentary say Bazelgette discovered a slope of 40 cm per kilometer for keeping sewage running for London.
  • Ref. also en . wikipedia . org / wiki / Thames_Tideway_Scheme 25 km long sewage tunnel under the Thames. From -30 m at Acton, to -70 m at Abbey Mills. [ Are both negatives local relative to local land or relative to a common sea level ? ie Does that give us a slope/ gradient of 40m metres in 25 km ? Doesn't seem enough for rain water, let alone sewage ? ]
  • Ref: TV Documentary on London Sewage system designed by Sir Joseph William Bazalgette: 40 cm per kilometre
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stormwater#Regulations May lead to articles on gradients required.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drainage_gradient is not relevant, as roads need much greater gradient on gritty roads to avoid vehicles skidding.
  • LATER to search: the larger the pipe, the more efficient: less skin friction.
  • The bigger a canal is, the less the gradient can be, as while there is static friction at the edge, the water can run faster in the middle (consider a river as a series of concentric semi circles, with each slower moving layer exercising friction on the next more central faster moving layer).

• Side Effects

  • Could either stop Dead- Sea sinking, or could raise the sea; stop or reduce ever more sink hole collapses; resume old tourist trade on a stable coast line.
  • However maybe rain has leached out some salt column support even up to old levels ?
  • Some of the water piped from the Med. could be desalinated anywhere along the pipe line, using surplus electricity from the Dead- Sea generators, for agricultural/ industrial/ human use, anywhere adjacent to the Med-Dead pipe line, or anywhere preferably downhill from where the Med-Dead pipe delivers above the Dead Sea.
  • Local Climate mitigation around Dead- Sea: delivering water of either or both Mediterranean Sea salinity & potable water would assist the arid desert type Dead- Sea area.
  • Not damaging to world sea levels, it would fractionally help mitigate against melting pole caps.
  • An aborted project: en . wikipedia . org / wiki / Dead_Sea # Link_to_the_Red_Sea

• Politics

  • Israel & Jordan both adjacent to Dead- Sea should discuss & co-operate,
  • invite all locals to invest money & labour,
  • invite also non local investors, as a moderating neutral force intent just on engineering & financial success, not aligned to local political/ national/ religious/ factions.
  • Consider securing a special status for the territory of the canal/pipe, to secure co-operation between rivals, & secure the operation. Consider adopting some clauses from political arrangements of eg Suez & Panama Canals & Straits of Bosporus, & Arctic Treaties etc.
  • Routing planning & building of canal or syphon pipe would need co-operation between Jews, Palestinians etc. they would need reminding to co-operate, as if they fail to agree, both sides will loose all benfits.

Extra facts, corrections & links welcome by email

See Also:

• Some Relevant
  • en . wikipedia . org / wiki / Mediterranean % E2 % 80 % 93Dead_Sea_Canal
  • www . jpost . com / Magazine / Features / The - Med - DeadRed - Dead - headache
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean%E2%80%93Dead_Sea_Canal
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qattara_Depression_Project & https://www.globenewswire.com/en/news-release/2023/04/11/2644142/0/en/EGIT-Consulting-Signs-Agreement-to-Conduct-a-New-Feasibility-Study-for-the-Qattara-Depression-with-Elite-Capital-Co.html Some numbers when they report. may be applicable to also cost this project. too ?
• Academic
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantropa also referred to as Panropa A far grander (dam the Gibraltar Straits etc) project devised by the German architect Herman SöRigel in the 1920s
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messinian_salinity_crisis The Mediterranean dried out millions of years ago.