why isn’t ocean water filtered and used when somewhere is having a water crisis?
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Why is desalination so expensive?
Salt is a very tiny molecule. You might know its chemical name is NaCl. That means it’s just 1 atom of sodium (Na) and 1 atom of chlorine (Cl). A molecule of salt is only a little bit bigger than a water molecule.
In order to get the salt out of the water, you have two options, and both a very expensive. One option is to basically boil the water and collect the steam. Another option is to use a filter with very, very tiny holes. This also takes a lot of energy because you have to push the water through the filter. With most filters, water flows through pretty easily. But the special filters needed to separate out the teeny tiny salt molecules are super-fine, so you need a lot of pressure to push the water through.
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