The process of removing salt from sea water is known as what?

Desalination is a process that extracts mineral components from saline water. More generally, desalination refers to the removal of salts and minerals from a target substance, as in soil desalination, which is an issue for agriculture.

Saltwater is desalinated to produce water suitable for human consumption or irrigation. One by-product of desalination is salt. Desalination is used on many seagoing ships and submarines. Most of the modern interest in desalination is focused on cost-effective provision of fresh water for human use. Along with recycled wastewater, it is one of the few rainfall-independent water sources.

The world is getting thirstier and the global demand for fresh water is rising by 640bn litres a year.

Population growth is one factor, not only the need for drinking water and sanitation but also the need to produce more food. Agriculture accounts for 70% of water use.

More Info: en.wikipedia.org

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34 Comments

Laurie Johnson Gonzalez

If sea water was desalinated at the coast then piped into the African interior, no one in Africa would be hungry and thirsty. Power to run the equipment is provided by the sun. With all our technology, why are we not doing this?

Ian Swindale

One of the easiest Trivia questions you have asked for some time

David Stuckey

Laurie Johnson Gonzalez, number of reasons including political instability, threats of terror and criminal attacks on the structures, massive initial costs with limited benefit, and fears that the changes would harm the ecology of the region. Same applies in Australia, with the added fear that medical waste and sewage would come back in the desalinated water - no one wants syringes coming out of their tap.

Chris Braun

Reverse osmosis is just one of many methods for performing desalination. Another would be distillation. Hope that helps!

Player John palmer

Laurie Johnson Gonzalez, same as every thing else money.

Jim Adams

Laurie Johnson Gonzalez, and no one would have any money either, purify seawater is unbelievably expensive and could involve hazardous materials and waste.

Effren Hernandez

Howard Groopman, If water has been salinized (added salt) and then you need to reverse the process you can call it disalinization.

Sally Ann Brushwood

I thought it was Osmosis 🤔

Carroll Price

Requires massive amounts of electrical current. Except in extreme cases where there's no other option, ,desalination comes no where close to being worth the cost involved.