"Larry" wrote in message
...
Brian Whatcott wrote in
:


You've heard all about distilling water, and you've heard all about
reverse osmosis, but you haven't heard about low-cost, low energy
stills: they are brand new.

Briefly:
Take one forty ft vertical tube filled with saline.
Take one forty ft vertical tube filled with fresh water.
Connect them with a little engineering help - at the top.

The boiling point of water at sea level pressure is about 100 deg C

The boiling point of water at the top of a sealed 40 ft column of
water is near ambient.
So, it doesn't take much heat to boil the brackish water, and have it
pass to the fresh column where it is slightly cooled to hold the near
vacuum conditions at the boiling level.

[An engineering effort of a U of Utah group I think]

Brian Whatcott Altus OK


My deepest apologies to the engineers who may be rolling under their
desks, crushing their pocket protectors. It took me a while to stop
chortling. I nearly lost my Chinese dinner!

I think he is suggesting that the two tube be connected so that they form a
vacuum at the top. It wouldn't take much to make the sal****er evaporate to
fill the vacuum and condense over on the fresh water side. Productivity
wouldn't be very high though.