Turning Water Into… Water

From gCaptain

In a line from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s famous poem ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’, he touches upon the ancient conundrum that has plagued mariners and mankind for ages: how to turn seawater, making up approximately 97% of the worlds water supply, into potable water suitable for drinking or irrigation.

Today, however, there are several processes and products that turn salty seawater into fresh drinking water and no longer do vessels have to bring along a large supply of fresh water or rely unpredictable rainwater to stay alive for long stretches at sea.

Desalination, or the de-salting of saline water, is not a new technology. In fact, the first records of anyone trying to desalt water appear, arguably, in the the bible and early interest in desalination resulted from the fear of dying of thirst while out at Sea.

The United States’ interest in desalination was first recorded in a technical report presented by Thomas Jefferson, the Secretary of State, to describe the results of a simple distillation process to be present on board ships so that there would be a source of fresh water in case of an emergency. With the introduction of steamships, the first desalination units were developed and, by the second World War, were commonly in use aboard vessels.

Today, fresh water generators (FWG’s), are common place among both commercial vessels, and yachts alike. Detailed below, are just a few ways in which today’s vessels desalinate seawater into, fresh, potable water used for everything from drinking, to cooking and cleaning. Continue after the jump for more on how today’s FWG’s work.

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