Desalination/Distillation is one of man's earliest forms of water treatment, and it is still a popular treatment solution throughout the world today. In ancient times, many civilizations used this process on their ships to convert sea water into drinking water. Today, desalination plants are used to convert sea water to drinking water on ships and in many arid regions of the world, and to treat water in other areas that is fouled by natural and unnatural contaminants. Distillation is perhaps the one water treatment technology that most completely
reduces the widest range of drinking water contaminants.
Solar desalination is used by nature to produce rain which is the main source of fresh water on earth. All available man-made distillation systems are duplication on a small scale of this natural process.
In nature, this basic process is responsible for the hydrologic cycle. The sun causes water to evaporate from surface sources such as lakes, oceans, and streams. The water vapor eventually comes in contact with cooler air, where it re-condenses to form dew or rain. This process can be imitated artificially, and more rapidly than in nature, using alternative sources of heating and cooling.
Although desalination is a simple process, extracting fresh water from seawater on a large scale is very costly; however the scarcity of fresh water resources and the need for additional water supplies is already critical in many arid regions of the world. New technologies will have to be developed for desalination if we are to meet the growing need for fresh water worldwide.
In this activity your will make a simple model of a desalinator.
Here is desalinization lab experiment
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