Saline Water Conversion:

What do we mean by "saline water?" Water that is saline contains significant amounts (referred to as
"concentrations") of dissolved salts. In this case, the concentration is the amount (by weight) of salt in
water, as expressed in "parts per million" (ppm). If water has a concentration of 10,000 ppm of dissolved
salts, then one percent of the weight of the water comes from dissolved salts.
Here are our parameters for saline water:

 Freshwater - Less than 1,000 ppm

 Slightly saline water - From 1,000 ppm to 3,000 ppm
 Moderately saline water - From 3,000 ppm to 10,000 ppm
 Highly saline water - From 10,000 ppm to 35,000 ppm

By the way, ocean water contains about 35,000 ppm of salt.

The scarcity of freshwater resources and the need for additional water supplies is already critical in many
arid regions of the world and will be increasingly important in the future. Many arid areas simply do not
have freshwater resources in the form of surface water such as rivers and lakes. They may have only
limited underground water resources, some that are becoming more brackish as extraction of water from
the aquifers continues.

Reverse Osmosis

Another way saline water is desalinized is by the "reverse osmosis" procedure. In most simplistic terms,
water, containing dissolved salt molecules, is forced through a semipermeable membrane (essentially a
filter), in which the larger salt molecules do not get through the membrane holes but the smaller water
molecules do.
Reverse osmosis is an effective means to desalinate saline water, but it is more expensive than other
methods. As prices come down in the future the use of reverse osmosis plants to desalinate large
amounts of saline water should become more common.
Reverse osmosis differs from filtration in that the mechanism of fluid flow is by osmosis across a
membrane. The predominant removal mechanism in membrane filtration is straining, or size exclusion,
where the pores are 0.01 micrometers or larger, so the process can theoretically achieve perfect efficiency
regardless of parameters such as the solution's pressure and concentration. Reverse osmosis instead
involves solvent diffusion across a membrane that is either nonporous or uses nanofiltration with pores
0.001 micrometers in size. The predominant removal mechanism is from differences in solubility or
diffusivity, and the process is dependent on pressure, solute concentration, and other conditions. Reverse
osmosis is most commonly known for its use in drinking water purification from seawater, removing the
salt and other effluent materials from the water molecules.

Areas that have either no or limited surface water or groundwater may choose to desalinate. Reverse
osmosis is an increasingly common method of desalination, because of its relatively low energy
consumption.