PDA

View Full Version : Salt Water Treatment



PecosBackpacker
02-08-2006, 19:47
Countdown begins to Lost Coast (trip scheduled for March 10-18). Those of you who have done it know that it is primarily along he beach. I pose a question: I can treat fresh water with the best of them, but I have no idea how to treat saltwater into something I can drink. Does anyone know of any conceivable way to do this? Or is it not possible?

Roland
02-08-2006, 19:59
Countdown begins to Lost Coast (trip scheduled for March 10-18). Those of you who have done it know that it is primarily along he beach. I pose a question: I can treat fresh water with the best of them, but I have no idea how to treat saltwater into something I can drink. Does anyone know of any conceivable way to do this? Or is it not possible?
My experience with reverse osmosis desalinators has been on yachts. These units are large, heavy and very expensive. I have no experience hiking with a watermaker, however a quick websearch revealed smaller, lighter, portable units exist:

http://www.landfallnavigation.com/-sas07.html

.....still very expensive and heavy, and very low output.

kncats
02-08-2006, 20:35
Making drinkable water from saltwater is generally only going to get you enough for bare survival. Reverse osmosis devices requires very high pressures to operate, hence the very low output from handheld ones. The most common method of getting freshwater from salt water involves distilling it, evaporating it and then condesnsing the vapors. This involves a LOT of heat to get a significant amount or you can get a small amount over a long period of time with a little heat (as in sun light). Most of the methods you can find about getting water in the desert will also work at the seashore, except for the ones that involves wring out a cactus.

chris
02-09-2006, 10:36
Forget about it. You can't get the salt out of the water in any cost or weight effective manner. Although if you invent one you'd be set for life.

No Belay
03-10-2006, 17:34
Pecos, If you dont mind sitting still for a day every so often, you can produce a sizable amount of water utilizing a sloar still which as you probably know is nothing more than a large sheet of clear plastic suspended and sealed over a large depression in the ground. You can partially fill the depression with salt water and through evaporation and condensation produce quite allot of potable water on a sunny day. Do a web search for solar still for a diagram of the mechanics. Enjoy your Trek.

Just Jeff
03-10-2006, 22:40
You can go behind the first dune and dig a hole. If you dig deep enough, you'll hit the water table and that water should be drinkable. Of course, if the beach is lined with 100' cliffs you'll have a lot of digging to do...