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Water Desalination: Salt Water

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As the world’s supply of freshwater dwindles, mankind has begun to scramble to find an adequate solution to the problem. While scientists look for the answer, it seems the solution may already be present all around the world: salt water. The question of whether or not massive scale water desalination can be the most sufficient and sustainable way to address the shortages of fresh water that is suitable for human use is not a new dilemma, but is one that may need an answer sooner or later. Water desalination plants have started working on the problem, but it is unclear whether or not they serve as Earth’s best option for future survival. Water desalination is a very costly process, that is energy intensiveness and leaves a tremendous ecological …show more content…
One method that is currently the most common type of desalination is reverse osmosis. During reverse osmosis, pressure is used to push the water solution through a membrane, as the membrane prevents the salt to pass through. Reverse osmosis is generally considered to be the least energy consuming of all the large-scale desalination processes. However, there are still some issues that lay in reverse osmosis. The membranes being used currently are prone to clog up and gather too much bacteria, although this has been improved since the membranes were first being used. Measures are being taken to clean the membranes when they become clogged, like the use of chlorine, but the membranes deteriorate when chlorine is used to clean the bacteria. The water quality that reverse osmosis produces is also questionable, along with the considerable pre-treatment that the salt water requires, which can be costly in money, time, and …show more content…
In parts of the arid Middle East, Persian Gulf, North Africa, Caribbean islands, and other locations, where the natural availability of fresh water is insufficient to meet demand, and where traditional water-supply options or transfers from elsewhere are implausible or uneconomical, In particular, desalination is an important water source. Increasingly, other regions are exploring the use of desalination as a potential mainstream source of reliable, high-quality water as the prices slowly drop toward the cost of more traditional

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