We all know that a person is two-thirds water. And if our body can survive without food for about a month, then without water, at best, only a week (sometimes much less). A person needs to consume enough fresh water daily to avoid he alth problems. The seawater des alter and the mechanism of its functioning is a more than relevant topic.
Industrial cleaning
Active population growth has directly affected the number of fresh water sources on our planet. As a result, there was a shortage of it, which prompted people to look for various ways to make drinking water “manually”. The only way out was the possibility of desalination of s alty sea water, which is not suitable for drinking.
The World Ocean has become a source for water desalination. Sea waters go through numerous stages of purification, as a result of whichliquid gets rid of excess amounts of various s alts. The use of specialized installations comes to the rescue.
The use of seawater des alters allows you to successfully bring it to a state of drinking. Desalination of water on an industrial scale is carried out in various ways. Most of these methods are based on the use of overall energy-intensive installations. These are specialized filters and distillers. Consider the main types of water desalination in large volumes.
Cleansing Methods
In our world, only a few technologies have been developed that allow us to convert sea water into running water. One of them is the use of chemicals. This method involves the use of special chemical compositions for the desalination of the liquid. When in contact with s alt water, a reaction occurs, as a result of which insoluble chemical compounds are formed.
After the completion of the reaction, it remains only to remove the resulting precipitate by filtering. This method is not used in everyday life, and is rarely used for industrial water desalination.
This method has quite significant drawbacks. Firstly, the implementation of desalination will require a considerable amount of chemicals, secondly, the process takes a long time and, thirdly, it is not cheap.
Reverse osmosis method
This method has proven itself for a long time, today it is actively used in industry. It uses special cleaningmembranes. They are made from semi-permeable material. For example, from polyamide or cellulose.
A liquid with an excess amount of s alts is passed through these membranes under a certain pressure. As a result, the liquid particles pass through a microscopic grid, on the surface of which larger particles of various impurities settle. Thanks to this method, it is possible to obtain a fairly large volume of desalinated water.
Working principle of a seawater maker
Sea water maker is a device that allows you to remove s alts dissolved in it from the liquid. After passing through this procedure, purified water is obtained. It can be used not only in everyday life, but also as good drinking water.
The design feature of the device is convenient and practical in operation. But fresh does not mean clean. After all, in it, one way or another, different components are preserved. The use of the resulting water directly depends on their density. For example, ships require completely different types of water:
- drinking - exclusively for cooking and drinking;
- water for personal hygiene and deck washing;
- water for steam generators, otherwise it is called nutritious;
- technical water (used as engine coolant);
- distilled water.
For all these types, different marine water makers are used. All methods are divided into two categories:
- Distillation - a desalination plant that works on the principle of distillation, heats and evaporates sea water. Then the steam is "caught" and brought to the desired temperature.
- Filtration - the principle of reverse osmosis. S alt water is desalinated without transition from one state of aggregation to another.
His work is based on the "equalization" of the concentration of dissolved impurities. Extremely high pressure allows you to "squeeze out" unnecessary s alt particles.
Interesting fact
The world's largest seawater maker is located in Hadera (Israel). In terms of its scale, this unit resembles almost an entire plant. It desalinates about thirty-three billion gallons of seawater every year.
This covers two-thirds of the entire country's needs. After all, as you know, in Israel there is an acute issue of lack of drinking fluids. This seawater maker works, like most of all desalinators, on the principle of reverse osmosis, under the influence of which the waters of the Mediterranean Sea are not subjected to heat treatment.
Solar Seawater Maker
Recently, unique distillers have appeared on store shelves that interact when working with solar energy. Sea water is poured inside the device, from the received solar heat it turns into steam, condensing on the walls of the case, and settles in the lower part of the receiver.
The design of the unit is completely sealed, it can create a greenhouse effect and does not allow fumes from outsidedesalinator. Accordingly, as a result of this, more clean water is saved. At the end of this process, simply unscrew the plug and drain the purified water into a vessel.
Vacuum Seawater Maker
This type of watermaker is used in the navy. It utilizes the heat of the fluid that cools the main and auxiliary diesels. Clean water, heated to about sixty degrees Celsius, enters through the pipes of the heating battery at the inlet. At the outlet, the water temperature drops to approximately fifty-five degrees Celsius.
Vacuum distiller allows you to get about eight hundred liters of distilled water in an hour. This type of desalination plant can cover almost all fresh water needs without extra costs for fuel energy and maintenance. The device is fully automated. Since the evaporation temperature is quite low, the water maker can operate for six to twelve months without cleaning.
Maintenance of the instrument
Maintenance of the device should be carried out every week, every month and once a quarter.
Once a week, an external inspection of the device is required. It is also worth checking the correct operation of the pump seals and rarely used valves. Eliminate loose fittings and all kinds of leaks at the joints. Once a month, in addition to the weekly inspection, it is required to clean the seawater filter screen and lubricate the pump bearings. Once a quarter, the flow meter is checked,replacement of protectors on pipes, brine and pumps. The spray holes of the annular tube of the evaporator are cleaned, and the gland packings of the pumps are replaced.
Repair work
The repair process consists of dry cleaning the s alt water heater and the evaporator-condenser, followed by pressure testing and rolling of defective tubes.
You should open the liquid heater, clean the filters from the pipes and the pipes themselves from various debris and scale. You should also disassemble the flowmeter to clean it from dirt and rust. If the pump bearings are worn, they must be replaced. Additionally, it is recommended to clean the surfaces of the hulls in contact with sea water.
Sea water makers for yachts
Having a seawater desalination system on board a small vessel is comfortable and safe. A manual seawater maker saves money by eliminating the need to refill clean drinking water.
In an average hour, this watermaker, designed for small marine vessels, processes hundreds of liters of s alt water, turning it into clean drinking water.
Some models of water makers for yachts have a remote control function, which makes it much easier to control the process. Such installations are suitable for use on both sailing and motor yachts. Spare parts of ship desalination plants that come into direct contact with sea water are made from substancesnot affected by corrosion. The outer structure is most often made of stainless steel.
Portable Water Purifier
Recently, scientists have announced a new original device designed specifically to separate sea water into drinking and s alt water. The lion's share of distillers work on reverse osmosis technology, while consuming a fairly large amount of electricity. The disadvantages of this method of desalination include the inefficiency of working with small volumes.
New invention - portable seawater maker based on ion concentration polarization technology. The nanoscale channel is filled with liquid, an electric current is connected, which creates an electric field. Due to this, the water is divided into two parallel streams. S alt ions enter one of them, while pure fresh water appears in the other stream.
The creators plan to bring to mind a new device that will be powered by the energy of an alkaline battery. The planned rate of water desalination is about fifteen liters per hour. The invention is promised to be released to the masses in the next two years.
How to make a DIY seawater maker?
Water can be made clean without the use of industrial devices. Making a manual water softener is not difficult. To do this, you will need a saucepan with a tight-fitting lid.
This method of water desalination is based on the well-known physical phenomenon - condensation. Pour intoa pot of sea water, close the lid and boil. The steam accumulated under the lid is pure condensate. All water impurities have a large mass, so they settle to the bottom of the pan, and H2O particles condense in the form of steam.
This method allows you to desalinate the liquid with a large amount of loss of clean water. Therefore, the design should be slightly improved. To do this, you need to make a small hole in the lid of the pan, insert a flexible hose (tube) into it, cover the pan with a lid. Direct the other end of the hose into the next pan (any container) and be sure to cover the top with a damp towel. This will help the steam stay warm.
Put the sea water on the fire and boil. We wait until all the water "passes" into another pan. This will be desalinated drinking water. All s alts, as well as various impurities, will remain in the same pan. Here's a simple, DIY seawater maker that will help you get clean drinking water.
Another way to desalinate s alt water is to simply freeze it. The fact is that the freezing point of sea water and fresh water is somewhat different. S alt water requires a lower temperature to freeze than fresh water to freeze. The resulting ice is desalinated water, which may well be drinkable.
Sea water maker is definitely a necessary thing, but only for industrial scale. At home, you can turn sea water into drinking water with the help of simple tricks, with which we are todaymet. So now you don't have to worry about the fact that in an emergency, a lack of water can turn into a serious problem.
