What is it about?
As the global demand for freshwater rises and resources become scarcer, desalination has emerged as a promising solution due to the abundance of seawater. Currently, desalination plants supply around 95 million cubic meters of freshwater per day across 177 countries. However, conventional methods are highly energy-intensive and reliant on fossil fuels, contributing to climate change. An alternative method—freezing/melting desalination—uses about 70% less thermal energy than boiling, but it faces challenges with salt separation at near-freezing temperatures. This study introduces a simplified one-dimensional model that simulates how salt-free ice can be formed by tracking heat and salt diffusion over time. By focusing on salt concentration at the boundary where ice and water meet, the model achieves accurate predictions and offers a step forward in making freezing-based desalination more viable.
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Why is it important?
The importance of this study lies in its potential to make desalination more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly. By improving the freezing/melting method—which uses significantly less energy than traditional boiling techniques—the research addresses two major challenges: reducing dependence on fossil fuels and lowering greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, the proposed model enhances our understanding of how to effectively separate salt from ice, which is a key technical barrier. If successful, this approach could lead to more sustainable and accessible freshwater production in regions facing water scarcity.
Perspectives
The next natural step in this research is to take the model from theory to practice by testing it in the lab. This means running real experiments to see if salt-free ice can actually be formed the way the model predicts, under different temperatures and salt levels. From there, the goal would be to scale the process up and see how it performs in real-world conditions. Eventually, the method could be improved with better materials or system designs to make freezing-based desalination a practical, low-energy solution for producing clean water.
Professor Rosenberg J Romero
Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Morelos
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Saline Diffusion Modeling for Sodium Chloride Aqueous Solutions: Freezing for Desalination Purposes, Separations, September 2022, MDPI AG,
DOI: 10.3390/separations9100272.
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