Can you boil ocean water to get salt?

Can you purify salt water from the ocean?

Desalination is the process of purifying saline water into a potable fresh water. Basically–turning ocean water into drinkable fresh water. … Reverse osmosis and distillation are the most common ways to desalinate water. Reverse osmosis water treatment pushes water through small filters leaving salt behind.

Why can’t California use ocean water?

Historically, water has been cheap in California and that made desalination prohibitive. … While desalination can produce freshwater, it also generates brine, a highly concentrated salt water mixture that is then pumped back into the ocean. The higher concentration of salt in the water can be damaging to marine life.

Which is the best way to obtain fresh water from sea water?

Desalination

1. Potable water can be made from sea water, through a process known as desalination . …
2. Desalination can be done by distillation and by reverse osmosis .
3. Distillation requires a lot of energy to boil the water, and also to cool the steam down to condense it.

Can you drink ocean water to survive?

Why can’t people drink sea water? Seawater is toxic to humans because your body is unable to get rid of the salt that comes from seawater. Your body’s kidneys normally remove excess salt by producing urine, but the body needs freshwater to dilute the salt in your body for the kidneys to work properly.

What happens if you boil ocean water?

Thermal distillation involves heat: Boiling water turns it into vapor—leaving the salt behind—that is collected and condensed back into water by cooling it down. The most common type of membrane separation is called reverse osmosis. Seawater is forced through a semipermeable membrane that separates salt from water.