A schoolgirl from Zhytomyr assures that you can get energy from salt lakes
Photo: zt-rada.gov.ua
Anastasia Lukashenko, a student at the 8th grade of Secondary School No. 30, became interested in abandoned salt mines and lakes because she was sure that they could be of great benefit.
The press service of the Zhytomyr City Council reported this.
"Prospects for the use of salt lakes for energy" is the name given by the girl to her study. An interesting case prompted her to study this topic. Once she came across a publication in the newspaper Segodnya, which said that near the town of Soledar in the Donetsk region, a group of drivers was exploring an anomalous area near a flooded salt mine.
According to locals, during World War II, the Germans kept something so important there that they blew up the mine during the retreat. And people who knew about the cargo were shot and didn't spare even the German soldiers. Now it is completely flooded.
The publication says that divers decided to explore the four lakes under which the mine was located. And faced with anomalies that are allegedly inexplicable. One lake surprised divers with its hypersalinity and temperature; the deeper they dived, the hotter it became.
"At a depth of 4.5 meters, we came across a denser layer of water, even saltier. I came across this, only in caves, where you can go from freshwater to salt. This transition is visible visually. It looks like liquid glass and is called the halocline effect. And in the second half of the lake, separated by a spit, the water, contrary to all expectations, was very cold. It was only ten degrees," the publication said.
Nastia says that seeing the words "anomaly" and "anomalous lake," she was immediately skeptical. And tested her doubts with experiments.
First, she decided to find the average temperature difference between the layers. The volume of test water was 40 liters. The thickness of the layer is 40 cm, and the salt concentration is 180 kg per cubic meter. The average temperature difference was about 3 degrees Celsius. Although the amount of water was small, the temperature difference between the layers was recorded.
Nastia's other experiment was the search for the amount of heat in the solar pond and the average monthly temperature values in each layer. A pond 3 m deep was needed to create a pond-based power plant.
"I filled it with an aqueous solution of salt (average 180 g per cubic meter). The area depends on the amount of energy needed and the location of the pond," says Nastia. "I took the empirical method as my research method. During the last experiment, I measured the temperature of the upper and lower layers for 6 months. It turned out that the layers have different temperatures."
"When salt is poured, the first layer of freshwater will actually be a lens through which the sun's rays pass and heat the lower layers. And because the density is high, the mixing of the layers is insignificant. Therefore, the lower layer heats up more than the top," explains the researcher.
Nastia concluded that reservoirs could be used to produce hot water, electricity and for heating greenhouses.
"This method of energy production is environmentally friendly and inexpensive, salt mines can operate around the clock and at any time of year. And long-term operation: some water will evaporate, and its level in the reservoir will need to be maintained. In Ukraine, it is advisable to use such a device," the young researcher is convinced.
Nastia says she knows at least 6 salt mines that can be used to Ukraine's advantage.
And the phenomenon, which the heroes of the Segodnya publication perceived as an anomaly, is natural. The girl, together with her supervisor, physics teacher Anatolii Shubin, sent a letter to the newspaper's editorial office, explaining that from a physical point of view there is no anomaly here. Unfortunately, they didn't receive any answers.
