Water desalination

[desertman]

We basically live on an island - and it is a matter of water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink etc....in fact I cannot see why the gov (or do I..) cannot invest in a major desalination programme

I am surrounded on three sides by sea water in my location, so have been thinking of ways (cheap, quick and efficient) to desalinate sea water for personal use..
Has anyone tried the 'T shirt method' - simple, but only good for small amounts - take a large metal bowl or similar, fill with sea water, place the T shirt over a hanger above the container and boil up. - After a short period, take the T shirt (caution may be hot!) and wring out the condensated water into a clean bowl = drinking water..

You could also use the standard techniques similar to that used in collecting water via a solar still - plastic cover over a hole etc... however, this Grandma from Spain has the right idea...cool!
http://www.treehugger.com/clean-water/d ... video.html
Enjoy

[nickdutch]

Thanks for the link, loved the video!

For larger scale water desalination, unfortunately I cant think of anything else apart from a large distiller. And that wouldn't necessarily be cheap in terms of plumbing parts nor energy to heat the water nor the technology to clean the boiler. but I guess you could use sea water to cool the condenser and use the heat extracted from the condenser into the sea water in the cooling bath to create more evaporation that can then be condensed again.

[desertman]

Indeed, I thought of that process, but as you say, it will be time consuming and probably only practical if you have a small community willing to share man power and expertise to put something together, in that sense it would be a great project - for now I am just thinking of personal use etc -
I have spent quite a bit of time in the Western deserts of Egypt, and on one of my trips in 2005 I stayed for a week with Coptic monks in the middle of nowhere in the Wadi el-rayan area of the Western desert - there is a cavbe hermitage there - but they have constructed a large garden which they live off, and water collecting devices
1. On a small plateau they have constructed a long low 'cloche' type framework about 2 feet high and 60 feet long, with glass roof, the water condenses into troughs (this area is one of the hottest in the world..and I know I was there in during april, would not like to be there in August¬!!!) they use that for drinking when they cannot be bothered to pump up water from tne garden 200 metres away
The area is 128 feet below sea level, and if you dig a hole 20 feet doen you access one of the most purest water supplies - I told them to bottle it..LOL

[lightningxl]

Great vid must pack plastic sheet into BOB.

[highlandprepper]

I don't know if it would suit you, but it certainly works for me up in the Wild West coast. I got the idea from a youtube vid. Go to youtube search for homemade desalinator and the first vid should be a guy called Joseph Schmidt. Good video, sound instruction!