Humans cannot drink saline water. But, saline water can be made into freshwater, which is the purpose of this portable, inflatable solar still (it even wraps up into a tiny package). 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. The simple hurdle that must be overcome to turn seawater into fresh water is to remove the dissolved salt in seawater. That may seem as easy as just boiling some seawater in a pan, capturing the steam and condensing it back into water (distillation). Other methods are available but these current technological processes must be done on a large scale to be useful to large populations, and the current processes are expensive, energy-intensive, and involve large-scale facilities.water.usgs.gov/edu/drinkseawater.html
Posted on: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 14:48:53 +0000
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