How to make sea water for drinking. Homemade distiller: a method for obtaining drinking water from sea water in field conditions

Water is vital for every person on the planet. Unfortunately, it is not available to everyone. But a new invention developed by a research team at the University of Alexandria in Egypt could change that.

Operating principle

The technology uses a desalination technique called pervaporation. Salt is removed from sea ​​water using specially designed synthetic membranes that filter out large particles of salt and impurities. The remaining salt is heated, evaporates, and then condenses back into pure water.

In developing countries, investing time and money in developing water filtration technologies is critical. However, the technology must be accessible and easily reproducible. Fortunately, the membranes involved in this new invention can be manufactured in any laboratory. They can be made from inexpensive materials available locally. More importantly, the evaporation process does not require electricity, making this method of drinking water purification cheap and suitable for areas where there is no power supply.

In addition, the researchers discovered another interesting feature this technique. It is capable of not only filtering salts, but also removing other contaminants.

Efficiency

According to Helmy El-Zanfaly, a professor at the National Scientific Research Center in Egypt, the technology implemented in the study is much better than the reverse osmosis technologies currently used in both Egypt and the Middle East and North Africa. Using this development, it is possible to effectively desalinate water containing high concentrations of salt in the Red Sea, where desalination is more expensive.

On this moment, the technology is not yet ready for household use. In theory, the development has been proven to be effective, but large-scale demonstrations and an action plan to combat waste have yet to be made.

Water- the source of life for all living things, but you need to distinguish which water is healthy and which is not. Approximately 99% of all water on earth is the water of oceans and seas, that is, salt water, unsuitable for consumption. Many people in the world need living, fresh water, and today we will tell you how to get fresh water from salt water.

How to make fresh water from sea water at home?

Fresh water differs from salt water in the amount of salt and other chemical elements. The most popular method is to separate salts from water by distillation.
This method involves heating water to boiling point and collecting the vapors in the form of condensate. This method is well described in the article - .

There is also another method, the so-called desalination. It consists in passing salt water through a membrane, which is capable of passing only clean water without salt components. But this type of purification is not very effective, since the membrane allows a very small amount of water to pass through over a long period of time.

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More than 97.5% of the water on Earth contains salt, and desalination is the process of removing salt from water. More than 60 billion liters of desalinated water are produced daily, with much of it supplied as drinking water to Gulf countries. It's a challenge for engineers around the world to find a desalination method that is cheap enough to bring desalinated water to poor and remote areas of the Earth. There are currently several methods used to desalinate water in large quantities, including forward osmosis, carbon nanotubes, and biomimetics. However, evaporation is still the most common method of producing desalinated water. All desalination methods produce hazardous byproducts, such as concentrated brine, which poses an environmental hazard to fresh water and animals. You might want to know how water is desalinated on a small scale for a variety of reasons, such as teaching students if you're a teacher, or to quench your thirst if you find yourself lost at sea. One method of desalination (with the help of the Sun) is evaporation. The method is not at all complicated and can be performed in various ways, which are discussed below.

How to get water on a desert island if you suddenly find yourself on one? This question comes and should come first to you in organizing your leisure time in conditions of survival on a desert tropical island. How you ended up on the island is another question, some came specially, some were shipwrecked, etc. Water production remains the most important issue, everything else comes later, the main thing is water!

And this is only in films, people immediately find a life-giving source of water on it, which is shown in the photo on the right. In reality, such cases are extremely rare, so there is no point in relying on such a source!

Such a source can only be found on a volcanic island, and besides, it must have mountains that catch the clouds and give rise to all these streams and rivers. But on a coral or volcanic island, but without large mountains, such a source cannot be found. Therefore, you will have to rack your brains over the question. how to get water on this island...

The very first and simplest option for extracting water is this. If your beach does not have coconut trees, then you should go to another one that does. It’s only in the movies that everyone has a ton of resources - palm trees and streams all around, but in reality palm trees do not grow everywhere on the islands, and there are islands where there are none at all! I have personally met such people!

If you are lucky with palm trees, and you probably will be, then you have a source of drinking water. Among other things, coconut water contains a wide variety of salts that your body needs (after all, salts come out with sweat), as well as sugars and vitamins. But remember that coconut water weakens you and you shouldn’t drink a lot of it. 2-3 green coconuts per day is enough. There is no need for you to lose excess moisture with diarrhea!

Young coconuts can contain up to 1 liter of water, but you should not risk your life by climbing a coconut tree; you can also consume fallen, ripe coconuts. At the same time, you can use coconut copra and other parts of it.

Young coconuts

In addition to coconuts, you can and should use solar desalination plants. With the help of such a desalinator, you can extract water from almost any other water, not fresh water. For example, from sea water or your own urine, as well as from plant leaves.

Homemade solar desalination machine

The solar desalination plant is simple. Here is one of his examples:

• A hole breaks out
• A container is placed in the hole in which we will collect fresh water.
• Place leaves at the bottom of the hole, on the side of the container. If instead of a hole we use a larger vessel (which is more desirable), for example, a bucket, a large jar, etc., then any water can be poured into the vessel.
• We tightly cover the hole/large vessel with plastic film. Place a weight in the center of the film, directly above our container, so that the condensate rolls down the film and falls into the container.

Water processed through a desalination plant turns out to be practically distilled, so a small part of sea water can be added to it. But if you have an unlimited supply of coconuts, then you should not mix fresh water with sea water.

Solar desalination device

It’s good if it’s the rainy season when you’re on the island. Then all you have to do is collect rainwater! Use all the containers that you have, all the polyethylene, everything that can somehow be filled with water to collect rainwater!

It’s good if you find bamboo on the island - this is an indispensable thing in survival conditions! You can make containers for water from bamboo, you can make a roof for your shelter, with water flowing in the right direction. Bamboo has many uses. You can boil water in it and store water. If you make a hole in a damp bamboo stalk, potable water will flow out.

You can also try digging wells, which may fill with water after a while. This applies to both volcanic islands and coral ones.

Well on a coral atoll, Marshall Islands

During the hot season, such wells may dry up, but the rest of the time there will be water in it constantly, thereby providing you with a constant source of fresh water. You no longer have to think about how to get water, and you can occupy yourself with other important things.

People have long figured out how to desalinate sea water in the absence of access to potable water, because potable moisture is the basis for the existence of a living organism.

Today it is possible to obtain desalinated sea water different ways and in different conditions - industrial, domestic and even extreme. Such skills will allow you to quench the pangs of thirst when fresh drinking water is unattainable for some reason.

Existing water desalination methods

In some regions of the planet, the shortage of fresh water is most noticeable - usually in arid landscapes. In such areas, industrial desalination is used.

At home, the production of desalinated water from salt water is forced by difficult living conditions, temporary or permanent, when the population experiences an acute shortage of potable moisture.

The skills of how to make drinking water, having only sea water, have more than once saved lives in conditions natural disasters, fishermen lost at sea, as well as extreme travelers.

• Methods of industrial desalination - chemical using reagents, industrial distillation in a distiller, ionic using an installation and an ion exchanger, reverse osmosis through membrane filters, electrodialysis and industrial freezing;
• Home desalination methods are distillation and partial freezing;
• Extreme desalination methods include collecting condensate using fire or the sun, as well as melting fresh ice.

Desalination methods in industrial scale not our topic, but we will describe in more detail the options for how to get completely drinkable moisture at home or in nature - they may be useful.

Desalination of water at home

At home there is always a source of fire or heat, dishes and devices that are useful for turning sea water into desalinated distillate; in extreme cases, there is a freezer.

The best way to distill seawater into distillate is a household moonshine still if there is a source of fire, but a hastily made analogue will also work. The task is:

• cause sea water to evaporate abundantly from heating;
• remove collected condensate;
• Cooling the steam drops, collect them in a separate container.

Any utensil that can be placed on fire is suitable as a substitute for a moonshine coil. Sea liquid is poured into it, then the vessel is covered with a lid with a hole into which a steam outlet tube is inserted. All that remains is to put a plastic hose on the tube, lower its tip into the container where fresh water will accumulate, and cover it with a wet rag so that the steam cools faster.

Sometimes during a disaster, the surviving housing has no water, no gas, no electricity, but there is some water that is undrinkable. In this case, there are 2 options not to die of thirst.

Option #1.

• The starting liquid is poured into a plastic bottle.
• Its level should be such that it does not reach the neck of the bottle if it is laid flat.
• The neck of the bottle with the original liquid is connected to the neck of the empty bottle using tape.
• The structure is placed flat in the warmest place found in the house - for example, a radiator or a sun-filled window sill.
• Place any object under the empty bottle so that it is slightly higher than the bottle with liquid.
• Soon drops of evaporated condensate will accumulate at the top of the empty bottle and flow down.
• All you have to do is cut the tape and separate the containers - the empty one will contain drinkable water.

Option #2.

• We will need a small basin with high walls.
• Place a small container in the center (a simple glass will do).
• Water for desalination is poured into the basin; its level should be below the level of the glass.
• Polyethylene or cellophane film is stretched over the top of the pelvis.
• A small weight is placed on the film, directly above the glass.
• The structure moves closer to the heat source.
• Soon drops of evaporated condensate will accumulate on the film and flow down.

All that remains is to remove the cellophane from the basin - the glass will contain drinkable water.

Note! These methods work great in natural conditions.

The third option for obtaining drinking water is partial freezing in the freezer.

• Pour sea water into a wide container.
• Place in the freezer.
• Monitor the freezing process periodically.
• As soon as a thin layer of ice appears, carefully collect it, this will be fresh water.
• Remove only a small layer of ice each time - its crystals contain almost no salt.

Note! Completely frozen seawater will produce salty ice.

Desalination of water in extreme conditions

Getting hold of drinking water, having plenty of sea water, in extreme conditions, when there are kilometers to a natural fresh source, is a matter of survival.

The fastest option is to build a primitive distiller on a fire.

• To do this, place a filled sea ​​water The container is covered with a lid on top.
• It is advisable to make a hole in the lid and insert a steam outlet tube there.
• If there is no hole and there is nothing to pierce it with, then the tube is simply clamped by the lid.
• The other end of the tube, through which drops of condensate will flow, must be lowered into a clean container.
• To speed up the release of steam, the tube is covered with a wet cloth or constantly watered with cold sea water.
• In the absence of a lid, a metal “roof” is constructed at an angle from the vessel; a clean vessel is placed at the lowest edge, into which the distillate will drain.

If this happens in the summer heat, there is a very simple option to desalinate water, but in terms of time it will not be as fast as using fire. To do this, you only need one container, film and a dug hole.

• You need to dig a hole a little deeper than the height of your container.
• The bottom of the pit is abundantly watered with sea water.
• An empty container is placed in the center of the recess.
• The pit is completely covered with film, and its edges are tightly fixed with sand, pebbles, and earth.
• A weight is placed on the center of the film, directly above the vessel - a pebble, stick, lump of soil or a handful of sand so that the coating becomes concave.
• The water, evaporating, will begin to settle on the film roof and flow down an inclined path straight into the placed container.
• In the heat, in a couple of hours the vessel will collect enough water to drink.

Note! The condensate is absolutely devoid of salts, so to quickly quench your thirst, experienced extreme sports enthusiasts advise adding a little sea water.

Another method of desalination is freezing, suitable for harsh winter conditions. Its algorithm is similar to home freezing, only the street frost will act as a freezer here. You need to scoop up sea water and wait for ice crystals to appear on the surface - they will taste fresh, and you can easily drink such water.