What is Water Desalination?

on May 23, 2020

Water desalination is the process of removing salt and other minerals from water to make the water suitable for drinking or irrigation. The byproduct of this process is brine, which can be processed for table salt. Water desalination is used to produce fresh water in communities where naturally occurring potable water is limited. It is also used to create fresh water for use on ships and submarines.

Due to the specialized equipment involved, desalinating water tends to be more expensive than using naturally occurring water sources, such as lakes, springs, and rivers. For this reason, water desalination is economically feasible only when it would be difficult or impossible to get fresh water from natural sources. One way to reduce the cost of water desalination is to pair the desalination plant with an energy plant and then use the heat byproduct from the power plant to aid in water desalination.

Many countries use desalinated water. Some examples are the United States, Australia, Israel, and Saudi Arabia. Though water desalination tends to be expensive when compared with using naturally occurring ground water, some studies suggest that it is generally less expensive than using large-scale water recycling programs.

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