answersLogoWhite

0

Desalinization

Three quarters of the earth is covered with water, but you can’t drink it. Turning salt water into fresh water for drinking and for watering crops is vital for the future of the human race. Questions about desalinization (or desalination) are answered here.

245 Questions

What are the positives and negatives of desalination?

the only negative thing will be africans getting healthy again and taking control over their resources, wait, that's a positive thing - happyboog

oh, and the only positive thing will be thousands and thousands of fishies and other marine life dying, hold on, that's a negative thing

and even though the plant is going to be very useful to humankind, we gotta think about mother nature too :) - gummi bears

Why is desalination good?

Desalinization is good because you can't drink salt water. If you want fresh water and you live in a place with very little, but have a lot of energy, you can use desalinization to make fresh water.

Why is desalination?

Desalination is used to remove salt and other impurities from seawater or brackish water to make it suitable for human consumption or irrigation in areas facing water scarcity. It helps to increase the available freshwater resources and reduce dependence on limited water sources.

What are the benefits of desalination?

u can still get high quality drinking water even if there is no rain, so the rural community can have good water.

Hey to all of my freinds's, xoxoxox. JASMINNNE hhehe

How will desalination help with your water shortage?

Desalination provides extra reserves of water by removing the salt from salt water.

Is desalination expensive?

yes but the Carbon footprint will be increased by 180 kgs per 60, 000 of water and that equates to a full tank of gasoline, however, that is less than travelling from Perth to Sydney!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On the other foot, the construction cost are very large, the running costs are big and on-going, and there is still resitance from the neighbors on the impact on the local community from construction and also from have a large, noisy, operating 24/7, industrial size building stuck on your local beach betwen the houses bought for the ocean view and the ocean.

How does a desalination plant work?

Desalination starts out like any other water treatment plant- the water is filtered and treated to get rid of particles, debris, unwanted chemicals, etc.

In desalination, this water is then forced through membranes which have holes big enough to let water through but too small for the salt particles.

Desalination has traditionally been too expensive for most municipalities to use, but as water becomes more scarce, it has become increasingly popular.

See the link below under "Related Links" for a website describing a desalination plant in Tampa Bay, Florida.

Recently seawater desalination process is focused on developing cost-effective ways to provide fresh water for human consumption in areas where the availability of fresh water is becoming more limited.

Seawater is forced through a semi-permeable membrane, which removes all of the dissolved solids and produces fresh, potable water on the other side. The desalination process will reject about 98 percent of salts, contaminates and pollutants from seawater. Salt or brackish water first enters in the RO via a through-hull fitting and is then filtered through the sea strainer. The feed water is boosted to 30 psi by the booster pump and filtered through 25 and 5 micron pre-filters. If oil is present, it is then separated and removed by the oil/water separator. These filters remove sediments and suspended solids from the feed water before entering the high-pressure pump.

The High Pressure Pump supplies the required force to drive the feed water through the semi-permeable Reverse Osmosis (R.O.) Membrane. An automatic high pressure safety relief valve protects the water maker if pressure exceeds recommended levels.

The fresh water produced flows out of the Reverse Osmosis Membrane where it is up to 99.2% free of salts, minerals, and other ions. It then passes into the Product Flow Meter where the amount of potable water produced per minute is registered. Next, the Salinity Probe registers the salt content of the product water. If the water is good quality, it passes through the 1 Micron Carbon Block Post-Filter and ½ Micron Ceramik Post-Filter, which purifies the water of unpleasant odors and taste. Finally, the last filtration process is completed by an optional Ultraviolet Sterilizer where 99.8% of all micro-organisms, including viruses and bacteria are destroyed.

Why are there no desalinization plants being built in the US or elsewhere?

In the US it's historically been cheaper to bring water in from elsewhere than to desalinate seawater. As water usage grows, that may eventually stop being true; southern California in particular is nearing the point where aqueducts from water sources such as the Sacramento river and the Colorado river are effectively tapped out. There have been attempts in California, but politics have hindered a project thus far. Apparently, there is at least one operational desalinization plant in the US in Tampa Bay. Tampa Bay link: http://www.tampabaywater.org/watersupply/tbdesal.aspx There is a reverse-osmosis desalination plant at Kwinana, Western Australia which was commissioned in 2005 and supplies Perth with around 20% of its water. There is a second plant under construction near Bunbury.

How is desalination done?

Desalinisationsaline is salt. de is to undo or remove. You might "desalinise" sea water - ie. remove the salt content from sea water

it separates it in to two streams :)

Answerremoval of salt

A more fancy pants answer is that desalinization is the process of extracting salt from sea water to make drinking water. An easy way to do it is to boil salt water and capture the water vapor as it leaves the boiling pot. When the vapor cools, it condenses and reforms into water drops that through coagulation reform into fresh water.

Answerthe remove of salt from a solution.

e.g. removing salts from seawater to produce drinking water

AnswerIt means taking the salt out of a liquid.

Many methods for water purification and seawater desalinization have been used for a number of years starting in ancient times with good old fashion distillation (boil the water and catch the condensate leaving the bad stuff behind). The leading method now is membrane based...reverse osmosis. Expensive to build, expensive to operate and maintain.

Reverse Osmosis uses pressure to force water molecules through a special membrane with very small pores that trap salts and other dissolved solids (retentate) and results in up to 99% pure water (solute). In low pressure home use, RO usually results in 80% or more waste...5 gallons of waste water are produced for every gallon of useable water. In high pressure systems (1000 psi or more) used in saltwater desalinization, recovery rates can exceed 90%. High pressure systems require alot of energy to run however.

New studies are underway to improve membrane efficiencies (particularly in energy use) include forward osmosis which actually uses an ionic salt process and then removing the special salts from the solute..or good water side..of the membrane process.

Carbon nano-tubes built into membranes and electrically charged to repel salt ions before reaching the membrane, and biomimetic membranes utlizing aquaporins in a similar charged fashion hold some promise to improving the efficiency of RO systems but are still in the theory and development stage.

One new process that is actually in commercial development is Capacitive De-ionization which uses a flow-through capacitor designed to eliminate dissolved solids from water using a small electrical charge.

If you have 2 plastic jugs filled with water How can you put all the water into a barrel without using the jugs or any dividers and still tell which water came from which jug?

freeze both of the waters and them put them in the barrel. you could still tell them apart since they will be frozen. freeze the water from both jugs and put them in the barrell you could mix the water with (different) coloured jello and lots of sugar so that they harden into two non-mixing lumps in the barral. And not only have you solved the riddle but have a yummy snack afterwards.

Are desalination plants good or bad for your environment?

There are many bad things about desalination plants. they are very expensive to use, and also let off a lot of carbon emissions which damage the ozone layer. The government spends a fortune on the chemicals needed to desalinate the water, then they discharge all the waste back into the ocean which can kill fish and damage the marine life.

How is science and technology utilized in desalination?

Desalination is the process of removing salt from sea water in order to make drinking water. The method of doing this typically uses reverse osmosis. Distillation is sometimes employed, usually using vacuum distillation.

Types of Desalination?

category of desalination types:

1- thermal type (multi stage flash, multi effect,vapor compression)

2-membrane type.( reverse osmosis. electro dialysis)

3-ion type. (ion exchange)

Why are desalination and dip irrigation not used more in Southwest Asia?

it sounds like a simple solution right, that's what i thought but its not. desalination systems are very costly and with the recession right now, its not the first thing on peoples lists.

Since south west Asia isn't one of the most richest countries, its very costly to install a new desalination system, which other countries such as North Africa have others to come in and pay for it. for example, Hyflux won US$100m to install a new one there. If they had someone pay for theirs too, i bet they would use it more...

What is the term used for people who worry what others think of them whether it is good or bad?

The term is "people pleaser" or "approval seeker." These are individuals who are overly concerned with gaining the approval and acceptance of others, often at the expense of their own needs and well-being.

Does Mexico have a desalination plant?

Yes. One of them is located at Los Cabos, Baja California Sur.

How can salt water be made drinkable?

Desalination, the process of removing salt can be done:

  • Through the process of osmosis, where it is forced through filters small enough to remove the salt.
  • Boil it and catch and cool the steam. This is a distillation process.