how is saltwater purified to drinking water?

Answer 1

More than one method is possible.

Distillation can be used to boil the liquid water away while leaving the salt behind. The steam (water vapor) can be collected and cooled / condensed to make pure liquid water.

Reverse osmosis is another possibility in which a membrane is used to "sort out" in a way the water molecules from the salt ions.

Answer 2

Reverse Osmosis also works.

Osmosis involves the selective movement of water from one side of a membrane (a plastic film that looks similar to cellophane) to the other. To make the process work, pressure is applied to the contaminated water, forcing water through the membrane. Since contaminants do not move with the water as it moves across the membrane, purer water collects on the other side of the membrane. The purified water that accumulates on one side of the membrane can then be used or stored.


A specific amount of pressure is necessary to separate purified water and contaminants. This required pressure is based on the type and concentration of contaminants in the water. For example, producing purified water from sea water requires more than 10 times the applied pressure than regular tap water requires. Supplying even more pressure to the contaminated water than is required provides better separation and a higher production rate.

Answer 3

I believe the desalination process is done most by reverse osmosis today. Their is a process where the water is pumped through a series of membranes and at each station the membrane has a smaller micron rating. The end product would be pure water and then the chlorination process would take place to make sure all bacteria are killed. To clean the membranes, chlorinated water is pumped in reverse thus flushing the membranes and getting the system ready for the next run.

Answer 4

Boil the salty water inside a small container with a sube sticking out of it then out of that tube sticks another smaller tube in a diagonal that leads to another container.

So basically you boil the water and when it evaporates, the salt will stay in the bottom. Then the vapor will hit the upper part of the tube and will become water again which will run down the diagonal looking tube into the other container giving you fresh water on one side and salt in the other...

(sigh) I hope you understood lol

Answer 5

I believe it is by reverse osmosis.

But if you want to do it yourself, evaporate it and catch the vapor, let it filter down through a glass or plastic pipe, cool, and drip down into a second container. With a big enough apparatus you could purify a lot of sea water that way.

- Cai

Answer 6

there are 2 ways widely used today, distillation and reverse osmosis. Distillation involves boiling the water to vapour leaving the salt behind and condensing them back to water again while reverse omosis involves passing saltwater through a permeable membrane and since water molecules r small than salt ions, with pressure they ll pass through the membrane leaving the salt ions behind.

Answer 7

boil the saltwater...this separates the salt from the water. The evaporated water is collected in another container.

Answer 8

Boil it in a container that has a tube leading to another cold container. The steam goes through the tube and cools to become saltless water. The salt stays in the first container.

Answer 9

I know of two effective ways of purifying water.
One is evaporation and the second is reverse osmosis.

Answer 10

First, it is filtered and sent through carbon. Second, a reaction is created that removes the salt. Third, it sees reverse osmosis, which removes the rest of the impurities.