Vogel-Kerl t1_j6lrpfd wrote on January 31, 2023 at 5:39 AM

Reply to comment by frustrated_staff in ELI5 Why is desalination so hard? by MiloFrank76

Sure, great ideas.

Besides sodium chloride, there are other salts as well:

Chloride (Cl-) 18.980 21.200 23.000 22.219 Sodium (Na+) 10.556 11.800 15.850 14.255 Sulfate (SO42-) 2.649 2.950 3.200 3.078 Magnesium (Mg2+) 1.262 1.403 1.765 742 Calcium (Ca2+) 400 423 500 225 Potassium (K+) 380 463 460 210 Bicarbonate(HCO3-) 140 - 142 146 Strontium (Sr2+) 13 - - - Bromide (Br-) 65 155 80 72 Borate (BO33-) 26 72 - - Fluoride (F-) 1 - - - Silicate (SiO32-) 1 - 1,5 - Iodide (I-)

frustrated_staff t1_j6m2vvl wrote on January 31, 2023 at 7:54 AM

Those are dissolved solids in mg/L. Did you notice how the top 2 are literally table salt? Potassium Chloride is NuSalt (a type of table salt), Magnesium Chloride is valued in industry, Flouride is valued in industry (especially dental products).

The only things I see in this list that are problematic are the Strontium and the Bromide, and I'm sure somebody has a use for them. This is really just an entrepreneur's opportunity waiting to happen