Why does distillation work for converting seawater to fresh water?

Answer 1

Distillation is a process of purification by means of heating, often to boiling to a gas, then cooling back into a liquid. In this process, the salt doesn't even melt until the water's already a gas, and as such is left over during the boiling.

Answer 2

Distillation works for converting seawater to fresh water because it separates the water from the salt by heating the seawater to create steam, leaving the salt behind. The steam is then collected and condensed back into liquid freshwater, leaving the salt and other impurities behind in the original container.

Answer 3

Water boils at a lower temperature then the stuff dissolved in it as sea water. So if you boil the water and then cool the steam so it goes back to a liquid, what you're left with is pure distilled water. All the sand and salt and general nastiness is left in the container you boiled it in.

Answer 4

Are asking for the actual process?

I got this info from wikipedia:

The traditional process used in these operations is vacuum distillation-essentially the boiling of water at less than atmospheric pressure and thus a much lower temperature than normal. This is because the boiling of a liquid occurs when the vapor pressure equals the ambient pressure and vapor pressure increases with temperature. Thus, because of the reduced temperature, energy is saved. A leading distillation method is multi-stage flash distillation accounting for 85% of production worldwide in 2004.

Answer 5

When you boil sea-water the salts are left behind.

(By the way, that's where most of our fresh water comes from - i.e. rain.)

Answer 6

because the fresh water evaporateees and is collected in a cooler place

Answer 7

Distillation works for converting seawater into fresh water because when you boil the water the salts are left behind. When the water vapor condenses again, it is pure and fresh.

Answer 8

we use distillation to get pure water from sea water to enable us get safe drinking water

Answer 9

Yes, this method can be used; pure water is released as a gas and condensed to liquid.

Answer 10

Dissolved salts are not separated by filtration.