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. The extraction of water remains the most important issue, everything else - then, the main thing - water!

And it's only in films that people immediately find a life-giving source of water on it, which is shown in the photo on the right. In real life, such cases are extremely rare, so you should not rely on such a source at all!

Such a source can only be found on a volcanic island, besides, it must have mountains that trap clouds and give rise to all these streams and rivers. But on a coral island or a volcanic one, but without large mountains, such a source cannot be found. So, you 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. If there are no coconut trees on your beach, then you should go to another one where they are. It's only in the movies that everyone has a bunch of resources - palm trees and streams are all around, but in fact palm trees do not grow everywhere on the islands, and there are islands where there are none at all! I myself have met such!

If you are still lucky with palm trees, and you probably will, 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 is weak and you should not drink a lot of it. 2-3 green coconuts a day is enough. You don’t need 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 palm, you can also eat fallen, ripened coconuts. At the same time, you can use coconut copra and other parts of it.

young coconuts

In addition to coconuts, solar distillers can and should be used. With the help of such a distiller, you can extract water from almost any other non-fresh water. For example, from sea water or your own urine, as well as from plant leaves.

Homemade solar watermaker

The solar watermaker 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.
• At the bottom of the hole, on the side of the container, put the leaves. 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 close the hole / large vessel with plastic wrap. In the center of the film, right above our container, we place a weight so that the condensate rolls down the film and enters the container.

Water processed through a distiller is 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

Well, if at the time of your stay on the island it will be the rainy season. Then you just need to collect rainwater! All the containers that you only have, all the polyethylene, everything that you can somehow pour water into, use it to collect rainwater!

Well, if you find bamboo on the island - this is an indispensable thing in terms of survival! You can make water containers out of bamboo, you can make a roof for your shelter, with water flowing in the right direction. Bamboo has many uses. It can boil water, store water. If you make a hole in a damp bamboo stalk, drinking water will pour out.

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

Well on Coral Atoll, Marshall Islands

During the hot season, such wells can dry up, but the rest of the time the water will be 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 take care of other important things.

Water- the source of life for all living things, but you need to distinguish which water is useful and which is not. Approximately 99% of all the waters of the earth is the water of the oceans and seas, that is, salt water, is 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 sea water at home?

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

There is also another way, the so-called - desalination. It consists in the fact that salt water is passed through a membrane that can only pass pure water without salt components. But this type of purification is not very effective, since the membrane passes a very small amount of water over a long period of time.

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

Operating principle

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

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

In addition, the researchers discovered another interesting feature of this technique. It is able not only to filter out salts, but to remove other pollutants.

Efficiency

According to Helmi El-Zanfali, a professor at the National 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.

At the moment, the technology is not yet ready for domestic use. The development has been proven in theory to be effective, but large-scale demonstrations and action plans have yet to be made to deal with the waste.

Today, the problem of drinking water is becoming more and more urgent in the world - it is quite scarce. Africa, for example, is provided with this resource by only 30 percent of the required amount.

Other countries to this mainland carried outdrinking water deliverypossible, but this is still not enough. It was this situation that prompted scientists to think about whether it is possible to make drinking water out of sea water? In fact, perhaps even at home, although this is a long process. This will require a distillation cube or a moonshine still. In this case, the law of physics is used, according to which salts cannot completely dissolve in water. That is, after evaporation, the minerals remain at the bottom.

sea ​​water sweep

Having driven sea water through the moonshine still, after boiling it, you will get ready-to-drink drinking water with a minimum amount of impurities. In its composition, it is more like distilled water, which does not conduct electricity. Therefore, it is quite difficult to get drunk on it. But pharmacies sell the so-called "enrichers", adding just a few drops of them, you can get the water that the human body needs. So, in total, the production of drinking water from sea water costs a little more than the production of mineral water.

How to make drinking water from sea water in natural conditions?

It is not difficult to turn sea water into drinking water if you create a kind of moonshine from improvised means. This will require a hole, which is wrapped inside with a film, several large stones and hay. Water poured into the hole is covered with hay. Stones are placed on top, which are also covered with a film. After the water heats up, it will begin to evaporate, and when it becomes cool, it will condense on the stones. Of course, there will be very little water, but enough to at least quench your thirst.

Issues discussed in the material:

• Why is there a need for seawater desalination?
• What are the methods of desalination of sea water
• How to desalinate sea water at home
• What problems are inherent in the process of seawater desalination

Purification and desalination of sea water is an industrial process, as a result of which salts are removed from it and a product suitable for domestic use and consumption is obtained. Our article will tell about the methods and technologies of seawater desalination.

60% of the earth's surface consists of territories where there are either no sources of fresh water at all, or there are, but a very small amount. Since there are few freshwater reservoirs in many arid areas, there are problems with watering the soil. They could be solved thanks to the possibility of using desalinated sea water for these purposes. There are significant reserves of such water on Earth, but due to the high salt content, it cannot be used for economic purposes.

To grow crops, it is necessary to water them with water with a very low salt content. If plants receive more than 0.25% salts with moisture, they simply will not grow. Also, the presence of alkalis in the water will adversely affect them. Many states, including Russia, are looking for ways to desalinate salty water sources, which would help to cope with drought problems in areas located near the sea.

In countries with a well-developed industry, there is an increasingly acute shortage of fresh water reserves. In particular, this applies to the United States and Japan, where the volumes of water required for industry, agriculture and domestic needs have long exceeded the available ones.

The amount of fresh water does not meet the needs in developed countries with low rainfall, such as Israel and Kuwait.

Russia occupies the first place in the world in terms of terrestrial freshwater resources. Baikal alone is enough to satisfy the current need of the Russian population and industry for fresh water. This lake is so deep that if you direct the flows of all the rivers of the globe into its basin, then it will fill up for almost 300 days.

However, most of Russia's water resources are concentrated in practically uninhabited and undeveloped regions of Siberia, the North and the Far East. The highly developed central and southern regions with a high level of industry, agriculture and population density account for only 20% of freshwater reserves.

Certain countries of Central Asia (Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan), as well as the Caucasus, Donbass and the southeastern part of the Russian Federation, have huge mineral resources, but do not have freshwater sources.

In Russia, there are a large number of underground sources, the mineralization level of which ranges from 1 to 35 g/l. They cannot be used for the needs of the population, as they contain a large amount of salts, but after desalination they can be used quite well.

In the process of desalination of sea water, an important parameter is its salinity, which refers to the mass of dry salts in grams per 1 kg of substance. The amount of salts per unit volume of liquid can vary significantly depending on the sea. For example, the Black, Caspian and Azov Seas are characterized as slightly saline. The average salinity of the World Ocean is 35g/kg.

In addition to table salt (NaCl), sea water also contains a number of other chemical elements, mainly in the form of ions that can be obtained from it on an industrial scale: K +, Mg2 +, Ca2 +, Sr2 +, Br-, F-, H3BO3. In total, about 50 chemical elements in various concentrations have been found in the subsoil of the sea, including lithium (Li), rubidium (Rb), phosphorus (P), iodine (J), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn) and molybdenum (Mo).

Marine water resources contain more than 50 chemical elements. The concentration of each of them is extremely small, but their total mass determines the salinity of the liquid. Only water containing no more than 0.001 g / ml of salts can be suitable for food. In order to achieve such a concentration, various seawater desalination technologies are used. Specialists are trying to develop desalination systems that would consume little energy, but at the same time purify water as much as possible for use by the population.

Today, the following methods of seawater desalination are used: distillation, reverse osmosis, ionization and electrodialysis.

In the southern regions, solar distillers are actively used, in which sea water is heated and evaporated. There is also an opposite method, in which salt water is frozen and then fresh water is separated from it, since it freezes faster.

A sea water maker is a device that can remove salts dissolved in water from water. After the purification procedure, water is obtained, which can be used not only for household needs, but also for drinking. The design of the device is distinguished by convenience and practicality in operation.

However, desalinated water is not clean at the same time, because other components are also preserved in it, the density of which determines the area of ​​its application. So, on ships, different types of water reserves are required:

• drinking, which is used only for cooking and drinking;
• water for personal hygiene and deck washing;
• water for steam generators, or feed water;
• technical water, which is used as a coolant for engines;
• distilled water.

To obtain all these types, different ship distillers are used.

Desalination technologies include the following:

1. Distillation, in which the desalinator heats and evaporates sea water. The resulting steam is "caught" and brought to the required temperature.
2. Filtration, in which the device works on the principle of reverse osmosis. Salt water is purified without going from one state to another. The operation of such an apparatus is based on bringing the concentration of dissolved impurities to the optimum. Very high pressure allows you to "squeeze out" excess salt particles.

In the Israeli city of Hadera, there is the largest distiller on the planet. This unit is commensurate in size with the whole plant. Every year it desalinates about thirty-three billion gallons of sea water. The distiller works on the principle of reverse osmosis, as a result of which the Mediterranean waters are not subjected to heat treatment.

The installation is completely hermetic, it creates the effect of a greenhouse, while no leakage of fumes to the outside is allowed. As a result, the net water residue is retained in a larger volume. At the end, the cork is unscrewed, and the purified liquid is drained into a container.

Similar devices are used in the navy. They use the heat of the liquid, which serves to cool the main and auxiliary diesel engines. Purified water, heated to 60 °C, enters at the inlet through the pipes of the heating battery. When leaving the liquid, the temperature of the liquid drops to about 10 °C.

Vacuum maker produces about 800 liters of distilled water per hour. It can meet all your fresh water needs without wasting fuel energy, and full automation saves maintenance costs. Since the evaporation temperature is quite low, the water maker can operate for six to twelve months without requiring cleaning.

It is known that the population of Israel suffers from a serious shortage of drinking supplies. The operation of the apparatus described above makes it possible to cover almost two-thirds of the water demand of the whole country.

Today, a variety of equipment is used to desalinate seawater, including unique solar-powered desalination plants. Water is poured into them, which, under the influence of solar heat, turns into steam, condenses on the walls of the case and then settles in the lower part of the device.

To date, two methods of desalination are widely used in industry: membrane (mechanical) and thermal (distillation). In the first case, reverse osmosis technology is used. Sea water is passed through semi-impermeable membranes under a pressure significantly exceeding the pressure difference between fresh and sea water (for the latter it is 25-50 atm.).

The microscopic pores of the filters freely pass only small water molecules, retaining larger ions of salt and other impurities. The material for such membranes is polyamide or cellulose acetate, they are produced in the form of hollow fibers or rolls.

The method of deep reverse osmosis water desalination has a number of advantages compared to other methods. Firstly, the devices are simple and compact, and secondly, they do not require large amounts of energy. In addition, the reverse osmosis system is controlled in semi-automatic and automatic modes.

However, this method also has its drawbacks. The quality of cleaning here depends on how effective the pre-treatment was. In addition, the resulting drinking water still contains a fairly large amount of salt (500 mg/m3 of total salt concentration). Also, this method requires increased operating costs, since the regular purchase of associated chemicals and the replacement of membrane filters are necessary.

Wonthaggi Desalination Plant is the world's largest membrane filter desalination plant located in Melbourne. It is capable of processing 440 thousand cubic meters of water per day. In the Israeli city of Ashkelon, there is a plant where water is purified from salts by reverse osmosis. It processes 330 thousand cubic meters of water per day.

The essence of the thermal method (distillation) is that liquid is boiled at the seawater desalination station, and the resulting steam is accumulated and condensed. This forms a distillate - fresh water. You can also boil water without bringing it to a boil. In this case, it is heated at a higher pressure than in the evaporation chamber. The heat of the water itself is used to form steam. At the same time, it is cooled to the saturation temperature of the remaining brine. The disadvantages of this method are the cost, high energy intensity, and the presence of an external source of steam. However, it is he who gives the largest volume of fresh water per unit of time. For example, the Shoaiba 3 plant (Saudi Arabia) produces up to 880 thousand cubic meters of fresh water per day using the distillation method.

The two methods can be compared in several key ways:

Difficulties with fresh water supply arose in Crimea after the well-known events in 2014. Then Ukraine blocked the channel through which fresh water was supplied to the peninsula, resulting in a shortage of technical and drinking water reserves.

There is information about the planned installation of a desalination system in Kerch, which will produce about 50 tons of water per hour. The water resources cleared of salts will be used mainly for technical needs: feeding heating systems and steam boilers. This will help reduce the burden on the public water supply.

Water purification at this plant will take place in several stages. For clarification, it is supposed to use a combined membrane technology, for purification from salts - a reverse osmosis method, for polishing softening - an ion-exchange method.

The system will work in automatic mode, only one operator is needed to control the process.

Today, the profitability of irrigating crops with desalinated sea water is a big question: unfortunately, existing technologies do not allow obtaining both high-quality and cheap fresh water from salt water. But different countries of the world are constantly working in this direction, because the environmental problems of seawater desalination concern all mankind and require resolution.

Scientists have high hopes for the use of atomic energy to clean water resources, which would make desalination technologies much cheaper.

Do-it-yourself seawater desalination at home and in extreme conditions

If you need to purify sea water from salts during a hike, a home-made distiller is best suited for this, similar in design to well-known distillation apparatus.

The essence of the process in a conventional desalination plant is as follows: the salty liquid is heated to a boil, then the resulting steam is accumulated in a container and cooled. After the procedure, chilled droplets of water, purified from salt impurities, settle on the walls of the chamber.

Salts stand out from the mixture because the boiling point of a brine solution is slightly higher than that of pure water. Therefore, the fresh component evaporates faster and settles into the collection container.

To desalinate sea water in field conditions, you will need:

• first of all - the water itself, which is always in abundance on the coast of the sea or a salt lake;
• a kettle or kettle as a container for heating;
• an aluminum tube, which should be prepared before the start of the trip;
• a deep hole dug in the sand: it will serve as a cooling device;
• another container (glass bottle, stainless steel jar, etc.), where water purified from impurities will be collected.

On the shore of a lake or sea, you should dig a hole up to a meter deep, place a container (bottle) in it at a slight angle, into the neck of which you need to insert a tube.

Prepare a rubber gasket in advance: with its help, you will securely seal the junction of the aluminum tube with the neck of the bottle.

Then the structure should be covered with sand in such a way that only the upper part of the neck with the inserted tube remains open. The end of the tube will need to be placed over a kettle or open kettle of sea water. In this case, the fire is bred at a small distance from the bottle with the tube.

After the fire flares up, the water in the container will warm up and begin to boil, and the steam will gradually spread through the tube into a bottle buried in the sand, where it will settle like condensate. Gradually, up to 200-300 grams of pure fresh liquid is formed at the bottom of the container.

The easiest way to purify water from salt at home is to use a system consisting of a series of filters connected in a certain sequence. But even a complex multi-stage combination cannot remove absolutely all harmful impurities from the water. Therefore, long-known home desalination methods are very popular among the people.

For example, water is poured into a bottle and placed in a freezer, where after a while the pure component freezes. The part that does not freeze just contains all the harmful impurities, so it is drained. The frozen water residue, when it melts at room temperature, can be used for drinking and other needs.

There are two more ways to purify salt from water that can be easily implemented at home. The first is long boiling, as a result of which salt settles on the walls in the form of scale. The second is activated carbon filtration. In this case, the amount of material used will depend on the salt concentration.

Today, of all desalination methods, reverse osmosis technology is the most in demand. But its use requires high costs for the production and operation of membranes, as well as significant energy capacities. In addition, after desalination in this way, a highly concentrated salt solution remains, which is returned to the sea or ocean, which increases the salinity of water resources. Because of this, the purification process becomes even more complicated, and the cost of seawater desalination only increases every year.

In addition, only 1/3 of the world's freshwater resources are in the soil (2/3 are frozen in snow covers and glaciers). And they are used by man so quickly that nature does not have time to make up for the lost.

In this regard, the scarcity of fresh water is increasing on a global scale.

Experts predict that by 2030 more than two billion people will experience water shortages. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that each country uses different volumes of fresh water.

For example, an American consumes on average about 400 liters per day, while a resident of an underdeveloped country consumes only 19 liters. Half of the world's population does not have running water at all in their homes. All this will one day lead people to pay special attention to the oceans as sources of water.

The main challenge in seawater desalination is to minimize energy and equipment costs. This is especially important because a country that needs more purified water must also withstand economic competition with countries that have cheaper and more abundant freshwater sources.

According to the results of design development, it turns out that only for a small number of consumers it will be cheaper to transport water from a natural reservoir over a distance of 400-500 km than to desalinate it. Estimating underground reserves of varying degrees of salinity in arid regions, we can conclude that desalination is the only economically viable way of water supply for them, given their remoteness from freshwater sources of natural origin.

The desalination methods used today can be productively used to return used water resources to nature without worsening the condition of fresh water bodies.

If the water quality leaves much to be desired…

The problem of dirty water in the house can be partially solved by installing a high-quality filter, but in such systems it is periodically necessary to replace components, because it directly depends on how well the drinking liquid will be cleaned.

At the same time, the question remains: how to ensure that our workplace or a child at school has the best quality water? The best solution is to buy it with delivery.

The Iceberg company offers favorable conditions for servicing its customers:

• free delivery of water to your home or office: buyers pay only the cost of the goods;
• wells from which our water is drawn have registration documents in the State Water Cadastre of the Russian Federation;
• for the extraction and bottling of water, advanced technologies are used, which helps to preserve and increase its quality and natural purity;
• we also sell modern water coolers and other equipment manufactured by well-known European brands, taking into account existing quality standards. The sizes of pumps and racks for bottles vary, allowing you to install devices even in small rooms;
• delivery of drinking water to your home or office is carried out at the lowest price, thanks to constant promotions from our company;
• along with water, you can purchase disposable tableware, tea, coffee and other auxiliary products.

Clean water is valuable, but it should not be worth its weight in gold. Our mission is to provide every home and workplace with high-quality drinking water, so we have prepared the most favorable conditions for our customers.