Are you sure the thermodynamic limit on water desalination is extremely small ? I was under the impression that the salt bonds dissolved by water are quite stro

Are you sure the thermodynamic limit on water desalination is extremely small ? I was under the impression that the salt bonds dissolved by water are quite strong and thus require a non-negligible amount of energy to reverse (for instance, if you go about it by evaporating the water, it is very much several thousands of order of magnitude above landauer levels). Edit, found in another comment : For example, desalinating seawater with a typical seawater salt concentration of 35 g L–1 (corresponding osmotic pressure of 29.7 bar) and 50% water recovery (i.e., 50% of the feed stream becomes purified water and 50% becomes brine) requires at least 1.1 kWh per cubic meter of purified water. Regardless of the desalination technology, it is impossible to desalinate water using less energy than that determined by eq 12. 1.1 KWh per cubic meter is very much NOT a negligible amount, so the landauer analogy is incorrect.