seawater

seawater




Seawater Paper














It seems that everything can be somehow connected to the ocean. But what is the ocean made of? If it is water why can’t we drink it straight from the source? People have been asking these questions for millions of years. Now in today’s day and age we are finally at a point where that is possible with a little help.
The ocean is salty. The salt makes it habitable for a lot of living things, just not land dwelling things like humans. Being made of hydrogen, oxygen, sodium and chloride, it is just not what we on land can handle to rehydrate ourselves. Given the added ingredients, it also is more buoyant that our standard “pure” water which is just hydrogen and oxygen.
Making this vast wealth of water into “usable” water has been a long time goal for humans. In times of drought and famine we would look out to the sea and fantasize. Some were so desperate they would try to consume the waters, but ended in tragedy as the more they drank the more dehydrated they got. In today’s age there are methods that allow us to convert ocean waters to potable water. Desalinization plants, like the one currently in use on Catalina Island, are one proven method to make this happen. According to "Desalination Home" (2015), “Water desalination is the removal of salts and dissolved solids from saline water (brackish or seawater), also known as Desalting or Desalinization. In addition to the removal of minerals, the process removes most biological or organic chemical compounds.” This method is productive but very costly as it uses chemicals to separate the salt and other components from the seawater.
Another way to do this is Multistage Flash Distillation. This method uses a more natural process that simulates the Earth’s natural way of removing salts. Through good old fashion heat and rain, in a manmade environment of course. IAEA (2000) stated, “Multi-stage flash distillation (MSF) is a water desalination process that distills...

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