Water is a necessity for human existence. For years, freshwater has been extracted from the Earth's salty water by using technologies that replicate natural evaporation. Although this process works well, it is costly and leaves behind the unwanted salt molecules and contaminants and it requires an excessive amount of heat to evaporate the water. This cost has been a major problem to the poorer nations in the world. In an attempt to make this more affordable, modern distillation plants recycle the heat given off during evaporation.
Since this older method of obtaining freshwater has become expensive, a newer and cheaper technology has emerged. This new technology is called membrane desalination. This new technology works by reverse osmosis, which is when a thin, semi-permeable membrane is placed between saltwater and freshwater. The water on the salty side becomes pressurized and pushes through the membrane and into the freshwater side. During this process, the impurities, such as salt are removed. This technology is expected to become very prominent because the filters and evaporation chambers are more affordable and smaller. Working alongside this technology is the use of osmosis plants. These plants are usually very susceptible to contaminants and that is why new composite membranes have been developed to solve this problem. .
This new technology will greatly help to produce more drinkable water in this world. As already stated many countries in this world cannot afford to filter their water. This leads to many diseases and often death. And since water contributes to the growth of plants, having a better quality of water would make for better plant life and help the ecological system. Also having cleaner water would promote better personal hygiene. Since water is commonly used to clean, cleaner water would mean cleaner humans and Earth.
Water is a very important part of life on Earth.