You can remove salt from seawater at home primarily through a process called distillation, which involves boiling the water and collecting the steam.
The Principle: Boiling and Evaporation
Removing salt from water relies on the fact that water and salt have vastly different boiling points.
- Water boils and turns into steam at 100°C (212°F) at standard atmospheric pressure.
- Salt (sodium chloride) has a much higher boiling point, over 1400°C (2500°F).
When you heat saltwater, the water evaporates or boils away, leaving the salt behind as a solid. The key is to capture the pure water vapor (steam) and condense it back into liquid form, leaving the salt behind.
Home Distillation Method
Based on the principle, one practical way to separate salt and water at home is to use a simple distillation setup.
Here's the basic idea as described:
- Boil the salt water in a pot.
- Use a lid to trap the steam.
- The steam (pure water) will rise and condense on the cooler surface of the lid.
- The condensed water can then be collected, leaving the salt residue in the pot.
Essentially, you can boil or evaporate the water and the salt will be left behind as a solid. If you want to collect the water, you can use distillation. This works because salt has a much higher boiling point than water. One way to separate salt and water at home is to boil the salt water in a pot with a lid.
This method effectively removes the salt from the water, providing you with desalinated, potable water, although the yield from a simple home setup may be small.
