Why “Brine” is being discussed
The most recent Hacker News stories and comments contributing to this topic's mentions.
Looking broadly at the costs to use brine instead of fresh water you'd need a combo of stored brine and a method to generate brine from freshwater (for withdrawals) and then des…
by rtkwe · Sep 18, 2026
You could store the salt. You go up far beyond saturation. Salt sediments on the floor (which also might seal it). When you need brine you pump in seawater into a tunnelsystem i…
by NonHyloMorph · Sep 17, 2026
Depends a lot on how quickly it erodes the salt dome and the costs of using and storing the brine instead of using fresh water. Storing that much brine runs into the same space…
by rtkwe · Sep 17, 2026
They used an even easier method than what's described in the other comments: the salt comes from the initial construction of the SPR caverns. When they first built the SPR, they…
by nostrademons · Sep 17, 2026
Huh, of course. Like in salt farming, after harvesting the salt they wash it with saturated brine so it doesn’t just dissolve again.
by taneq · Sep 17, 2026
> the brine pond. Then why not store the oil there directly instead of going all the trouble of pumping it in and out of the caverns? Is it so it doesn't rain on it?
by raducu · Sep 17, 2026
Interest
Proportion of Hacker News items mentioning "brine" over time.
Mentions
Total number of Hacker News items mentioning "brine" over time.
Brine is a high-concentration solution of salt in water. In diverse contexts, brine may refer to the salt solutions ranging from about 3.5% up to about 26%. Brine forms naturally due to evaporation of ground saline water but it is also generated in the mining of sodium chloride. Brine is used for food processing and cooking, for de-icing of roads and other structures, and in a number of technological processes. It is also a by-product of many industrial processes, such as desalination, so it requires wastewater treatment for proper disposal or further utilization. Read more on Wikipedia