As the Earth's population continues to grow and develop our limited freshwater resources become increasingly scarce we're fortunate that the Earth's oceans offer an alternative and can provide a
sustainable supply of potable water sea water can be economically and reliably converted to potable water through a process known as sea water reverse osmosis the process starts by extracting water from the ocean using wells located on the shoreline or by using an intake structure located in the open ocean
osmosis is a naturally occurring process for a solvent such as water passes through a semi permeable barrier the semi permeable barrier or membrane allows some things to pass through it
but not others in nature the direction of flow through the membrane is from a less concentrated
solution such as fresh water to a more concentrated solution such as sea water until equilibrium is reached reverse osmosis is when the opposite occurs by pressurizing the concentrated
solution the seawater we are able to force water molecules to pass from the salty seawater solution through the membrane to the fresh water to protect the reverse osmosis membranes from becoming clogged by solid particles that can be suspended in the sea water the sea water is filtered before passing through the membranes