Seperation of NaCl from water

That is extremely salty water. Average ocean water is about 3.5% NaCl. Saturated NaCl brine is only 26%. If this water has been in contact with the soil, the soil may be damaged.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has been investigating salinity problems for over a century. There is a laboratory in Riverside, California that specializes in this research. You will find it here:

http://www.ars.usda.gov/main/site_main.htm?modecode=53102000

Solar distillation is the least costly means of obtaining water that can be used for human consumption or agriculture. Some crop plants are quite salt tolerant, and some are actually benefitted by a little salt. The Salinity Lab might give you some direction.

Fresh water supplies are dwindling and populations are growing. Finding ways to use agricultural resources that have been considered useless may be of benefit to everyone. Good luck!

Forgetabouit,

Order a tanker of useable water..

The solar still is the best & most practical option. Shallow trays in one end of a green house or polt tunnel would heat water and cause evaporation - you then need a cool end where condensation could take place and collect the water - a covered area which could cooled by covering it in burlap or similar on the outside and soaking it with water (salty would do)- the latent heat of evaporation should chill it enough to get a decent yield - the more sun the better it would work. Bit like freeze drying but at ambient temperature.

The electrolysis can't work because it produces NaOH, Cl2 and H2.

TWENTY PERCENT...???? Are you on the Dead Sea or is this industrial waste water?

For that quantity, 1000 liters, you could use solar evaporation, or, precipitate the chloride with silver. There may be membranes that could filter NaCl if the solution were chilled to precipitate same. That's my three.

Bobguz

You must live on the Coorong at the mouth of the Murray River in South Australia. It is a series of what were fresh water lakes, but now are about 6 times the salinity of the Southern Ocean, just the other side of the sand dunes.

There is really no practical way to reclaim this water. Reverse osmosis could do it - however the cost would be very high and you would have to deal with the concentrate and this system would be difficult to maintain. Paying for energy to heat this water for some sort of distillation process is out of the picture cost wise. Solar stills have already been mentioned. You could heat the water ( solar ) and then pumo the solution into a vessel and pull a vacuum on it so the water will flash off .... but you will need to condense it and will have to deal with the crystallized salt. The soil will be ruined for years if you spill any of the salt on it. The ancient Romans frequently salted the fields of enemies to force them to move on. Ed

Personally, if I had water that salty, I would start producing Household bleach with it using electrolysis, bottle it, sell it and buy fresh water for gardening with the profits.

Not such a daft idea - if you use a solar panel to generate electricity you can use it to dissociate the NaCL to give NaOH (caustic soda) + Cl₂ (standard commercial process) If you bubble Cl₂ through NaOH solution you get NaOCl -(sodium hypochlorite -household bleach at 3%!!!) more concentrated can be used instead of HTH (calcium hypochlorite). Sodium hypochlorite is better than Calcium hypochlorite as it converts to sodium carbonate rather than cacium carbonate which precipitates out in pools.

Sell the hypo and buy water.

Otherwise try this solar still - let me know how (or if) it worked.

Please respond with more accurate water analysis or water sample so I can make best recommendation. What is total disolved solids? What is suspended solids? Does the water draw clear? If not, does the residue seperate to top or bottom? Does it change on sitting over night? What kinds of salts are present. What is the source water, well, sea or lake? Are there any bio-materials? What is ph and alkalinity?

Happy to help?

Mike

Hello,

VERY SIMPLE WAY is to TREAT the SALTY water with a CATALYST called

"BIOSANITIZER"

This catalyst is a single Dose say 100MiliGram per 1000Ltrs and thats PERMANENT

If Water is Flowing or Stationary, for the 1 CuM (1000Liters), the DROPPING of a DEViCE....looking like a TAYAT recommended by Spiritual Masters....will SOLVE your Problem...for Good.

The SALT content is NOT Specified and hence you may Need a BOOSTER DOSE

if the result of 100mG is inadequate.

The Cost of The Product is USD 1000 for 100mG.

Assuming you use 1000Liters a Day the Cost of REFINING the SALINE Water AUTOMATICALLY works out to:

Life Time assumed as 5Years X Days per Year 360 X 1000 LPD

= 1,800,000 Liters hence the Cost per Liter Works out to less than 6 cents/L

If interested pl. WRITE to me on ID kishorekaikini@yahoo.co.in

regards:KK

QUACK

milo

Couldn't agree more Milo

Evidently many, many thousands in India!!!

You could probably try some of this, sounds good STUFF.

All the above is good information. At 20%, an installation involving reverse osmosis or distillation is going to offer a less economic proposition than returning the water to the environment and obtaining a fresh source from elsewhere.

If there's no way of getting fresh water out of a river nearby, then trucking it in is likely to be the local solution.

Further, <...electrolysis...> will create bleach, with hydrogen as a waste product, which is flammable. Tipping bleach onto the garden will likely kill everything it touches.

(usual disclaimer)