4 ms·
That's bottled water, not tap water. My guess is it varies greatly to due the source of the water. At the extreme, I would guess that desalination of saltwater
by nxzero 11y ago
That's bottled water, not tap water.
My guess is it varies greatly to due the source of the water. At the extreme, I would guess that desalination of saltwater to make it usable for drinking water would likely consume huge amount of water per drink unit of water.
Given that it's a pretty obvious question, find it interesting that it is not addressed; reason likely is most reporters do not do investigative journalism, but many will publish as is a story forwarded to them.
Lastly, it's very likely some water used was not drinkable to start, reused, etc. - which is to say, it's a complex topic and without a clear question and an understanding of why it is being ask, you'll always get an answer that appears to answer something.
- arviewer 11y agoHow would desalination cost water? You vaporize water, catch and cool it back to water, and there you go. The cost here is energy, which varies greatly depending on the sun.
- nxzero 11y agoUnclear how much you know about the topic, but there are a number of ways to desalinate salt water, including just mixing non-toxic saltwater with drinkable freshwater; that said, it requires 31 liters of freshwater to make one liter of saltwater drinkable. Normal saltwater has a salt concentration of 3.5% and to be drinkable that must be reduced to 1000 ppm (parts per million); which is to say, say for 100 liters of saltwater, you'll lose at least 3.5 liters just to reclaim the freshwater itself. Beyond that it'll depend on the system how much additional volume is lost in the desalination process; quick Google finds some systems that lose 20% of the volume per unit processed. Lastly, your reference to energy consumption brings up an example of additional sources of water lose. Water used to cool systems, water used to clean systems, leaks/waste, etc.
- nxzero 11y agoNot that I post for rep, or for that matter care about downvotes, but if you're expressing that the above comment was not of use, on-topic, opinionated, bad tone, etc. - it's not clear why. Please comment so that I might be able to address your concerns. Cheers!
- arviewer 11y agoWhen you need 31 galles of freshwater to make 1 gallon salt water drinkable, you have 32 gallons of drinkable water. Those 32 gallons are not wasted. When you make one jeans or a t-shirt, you may need many more gallons. You cannot drink that water afterwards, so that totally different.
- nxzero 11y agoReference to using freshwater for desalination has nothing to due with waste, but to make the point that boiling saltwater is only one of many ways to desalinate saltwater.