salt2fresh

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are there any low cost methods of turning salt water into fresh water??

-- flkeys (flkeys@flkeys.com), February 04, 1999

Answers

No. There's a large desalination plant in Kuwait that costs millions and millions of dollars to build and maintain. Your better off using a solar water distillation method. Doesn't it occur to you that there are no desalination plants here in the US (that I am aware of). Too costly.

-- Salty Dog (Morton@salt.com), February 04, 1999.

I may be wrong, because i haven't really looked into it, but aren't there fairly low cost desalinators built for boaters for survival purposes at sea. Also, shouldn't regular solar distillers desalinate salt water? I know that salt water put into one of these things should then distill into regular water, the only problem seems to be to build the thing to withstand the corrosiveness of salt water. If others know better, i stand corrected, but i would think either of these should work.

-- Damian Solorzano (oggy1@webtv.net), February 05, 1999.

The hand or motor-powered desalinators built for portable use have a finite life, and when it's over they must be sent back to the factory for refurbishment, typically after about 2000 gallons. Pricey, but good to have in the interim while building your solar distiller, which will work fine on seawater. These are easy to build, and there are plans on several sites. Just type in "solar distiller" in any search engine.

-- Why2K? (who@knows.com), February 05, 1999.

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