How do I turn salty water into drinking water?

YourRabbitGirl

Lovin' The Homestead
Joined
Dec 30, 2019
Messages
431
Reaction score
177
Points
80
Hi everyone!

I was wondering - incase of an emergency - how do I turn salty river/ocean water into clean drinking water? (Of course, the way can't include electricity in this case. :D)

Thanks!

- Clucky
Seawater is forced through a semipermeable membrane that separates salt from water. Because the technology typically requires less energy than thermal distillation, most new plants, now use reverse osmosis. I don't know if we can do this at home though.
 

wyoDreamer

Super Self-Sufficient
Joined
Sep 29, 2014
Messages
1,798
Reaction score
2,443
Points
267
Reverse osmosis "wastes" about 4 gallons of water for every gallon of clean water you get from it. We have a RO System for drinking water at our kitchen sink. It works well, but we are on well and septic so all the additional water used is not a big deal for us.
I watched a documetnary on survival in the desert (I was home sick with the flu and that was really the only thing worth watching) and they showed digging a hole, place your cup in the bottom of the hole, cover the hole with plastic and place a small stone in the center of the plastic to make it droop and let the condensation drip into the cup from there. Or better yet, take a piece of string and poke it through a tiny hole in the center of your plastic wrap so it will dangle it into the cup.
 

flowerbug

Super Self-Sufficient
Joined
Oct 24, 2019
Messages
6,169
Reaction score
11,720
Points
297
Location
mid-Michigan, USoA
Seawater is forced through a semipermeable membrane that separates salt from water. Because the technology typically requires less energy than thermal distillation, most new plants, now use reverse osmosis. I don't know if we can do this at home though.

yes, even many years ago they had such setups available for a reasonable price, i'm sure things have improved a lot in the 20+yrs since i had one (for marine/reef aquariums).
 

YourRabbitGirl

Lovin' The Homestead
Joined
Dec 30, 2019
Messages
431
Reaction score
177
Points
80
yes, even many years ago they had such setups available for a reasonable price, i'm sure things have improved a lot in the 20+yrs since i had one (for marine/reef aquariums).
Well... I watched Ed Stafford did that in his show before... I forgot the title of the series... but it a good show... you'll learn a lot about survival... and creating your own drinking water is pretty much vital...
 

Latest posts

Top