Yes, it can. However since reverse osmosis (RO) produces a stream of waste water as it purifies incoming water, the amount of waste water produced by treating sea water via RO would be huge. The fact of the matter is that RO technology was originally invented to produce clean drinking water on ships during long ocean voyages. I would estimate that for every 1 gallon of clean water produced from sea water approximately 7-10 gallons of water would be wasted.