Is there such thing as a machine that purifies salt water to fresh water?

Question

is there a machine like that on a large scale that could, say, purify water from the pacific ocean to be used as drinking water in Hawai'i ?

Answer 1

yes.

Answer 2

They only use them in places that have more oil than water.

Answer 3

I'm not sure that you would call it a machine but solar distillation plants can do the job in an energy-efficient, low-tech manner, unlike reverse osmosis. Imagine a large floating greenhouse. Seawater at the "floor" is evaporated by the heat. It condenses when it cools upon contact with the glass. The droplets are carried by gravity to troughs along the bases of the sides. This is distilled water and can be pumped to land. The method is most feasible in the tropics, the same area in which the problem is most severe. Essentially, you are just short-circuiting the water cycle.

Answer 4

There are hundreds of devices that remove salt from seawater-every ship on the ocean has one and all the water in the middle east is from desalting plants. Also some cities all over the planet have thee systems. If you want a small device to make water for personal use look for a reverse osmosis system which can be bought ready to be hooked up.

Answer 5

It's expensive to desalinate water. It's only done where it's economically feasible.

Answer 6

Reverse osmosis works.

Distillers work.

Answer 7

There are two processes:

Reverse Osmosis.

Distillation, normally under a partial vacuum to reduce heat requirements.

Both of these process require very clean sea water to produce clean drinking water.

Answer 8

yes there is. I don't know in Hawaii but off the eastern coast they have small ones not quiet on the massive scale. Look at the Desalination process.

Answer 9

Water is desalinated in order to be converted to fresh water suitable for consumption or irrigation, or, if almost all of the salt is removed, for human consumption. Sometimes the process produces table salt as a by-product. It is used on many ships and submarines. Most of the modern interest in desalination is focused on developing cost-effective ways of providing fresh water for human use in regions where the availability of water is limited.

Saline water can be made into freshwater, which everyone needs everyday. The process is called desalination, and it is being used more and more around the world to provide people with needed freshwater. Most of the United States has, or can gain access to, ample supplies of fresh water for drinking purposes. But, fresh water can be in short supply in some parts of the country (and world). And, as the population continues to grow, shortages of fresh water will occur more often, if only in certain locations. In some areas, salt water (from the ocean, for instance) is being turned into freshwater for drinking.

A promising method to desalinate seawater is the "reverse osmosis" method. Right now, the high cost of desalinization has kept it from being used more often, as it can cost over $1,000 per acre-foot to desalinate seawater as compared to about $200 per acre-foot for water from normal supply sources. Desalinization technology is improving and costs are falling, though, and Tampa Bay, FL is currently desalinizing water at a cost of only $650 per acre foot. As both the demand for fresh water and technology increase, you can expect to see more desalinization occurring, especially in areas, such as California and the Middle East.

What do we mean by "saline water?" Water that is saline contains significant amounts (referred to as "concentrations") of dissolved salts. In this case, the concentration is the amount (by weight) of salt in water, as expressed in "parts per million" (ppm). If water has a concentration of 10,000 ppm of dissolved salts, then one percent (10,000 divided by 1,000,000) of the weight of the water comes from dissolved salts.

Here are our parameters for saline water:

Fresh water - Less than 1,000 ppm

Slightly saline water - From 1,000 ppm to 3,000 ppm

Moderatly saline water - From 3,000 ppm to 10,000 ppm

Highly saline water - From 10,000 ppm to 35,000 ppm

By the way, ocean water contains about 35,000 ppm of salt.

It is estimated that some 30% of the world’s irrigated areas suffers from salinity problems and remediation is seen to be very costly.

In 2002 there were about 12,500 desalination plants around the world in 120 countries. They produce some 14 million m³/day of freshwater, which is less than 1% of total world consumption.

The most important users of desalinated water are in the Middle East, (mainly Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain), which uses about 70% of worldwide capacity; and in North Africa (mainly Libya and Algeria), which uses about 6% of worldwide capacity.

Among industrialized countries, the United States is one of the most important users of desalinated water (6.5%), specially in California and parts of Florida.

http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/drinkseawat...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desalinatio...

Answer 10

Yes there is.........infact I have a neighbor not to far from me who is in Hawaii right now doing exactly that..........but I don't know the name of it...........and also most of, if not all our submarines in the U.S. do that . Soooooooo hope that helps. If your interested in that type of stuff...........there's also a car in India right now, that runs on air..........and the price of the car complete is 2800.dollars not thousand but hundred....isn't that interesting...........enjoy...nice talking to you....nite

Answer 11

Yes, it's call desalination and there are already plants in CA, TX, and FL; I think NV or maybe it was AZ are building them also.  I'm not sure if they can support an entire state just yet, but I'm sure that in time it could be as common as waste water treatment plants.