Why a little bit of salt creates a massive energy barrier
With over 18,000 plants operating globally, desalination seems like a vast solution for water scarcity. However, these facilities provide less than one percent of the world's water needs while consuming twenty-five percent of the entire water industry's energy.
The ocean offers a nearly infinite supply of water, yet the presence of salt remains a formidable engineering obstacle. This video explores the mechanics of seawater desalination and the immense difficulty of removing salt to create drinkable water.
The energy cost is the primary challenge. Despite the scale of global operations, the energy-intensive process of desalination accounts for a quarter of all energy used by the water industry. The scale of the task is illustrated by the Carlsbad plant, which produces approximately 190,000 cubic meters per day, or 50 MGD.
Source: Why Is Desalination So Difficult?
