Flashcards on Distillation for Desalination
Distillation for Desalination: Making Seawater Drinkable
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Desalination
9 cards
Card 1
Question: What does desalination mean?
Answer: Removing most of the salts (solutes) from sea water so it can be used as drinking water.
Card 2
Question: Why are desalination plants usually built next to the sea?
Answer: They need direct access to large amounts of sea water to remove salts and make drinking water.
Card 3
Question: Why is sea water dangerous to drink?
Answer: It contains high levels of salt, which removes water from body cells and makes you more thirsty.
Card 4
Question: Give one example of a place where a large desalination plant exists and how much it can produce.
Answer: The Jebel Ali desalination plant in the United Arab Emirates produces over 800 million litres of drinking water each day.
Card 5
Question: Why is desalination not suitable everywhere?
Answer: It requires expensive equipment and a lot of space, so only some places can afford or have room for it.
Card 6
Question: What is one product from distilling sea water besides drinking water?
Answer: Pure (distilled) water collected after steam condenses; (the process leaves dissolved salts behind as a separate product).
Card 7
Question: Why does desalination using distillation produce pure water?
Answer: When sea water is heated, the water evaporates as steam and the salts cannot evaporate, so they are left behind; the steam condenses into pure water.
Card 8
Question: Why might a solar-powered water still be useful on a ship that has broken down at sea?
Answer: It can use sunlight to evaporate and condense water to make drinking water from sea water when other systems aren't available.
Card 9
Question: Why might a solar-powered water still be useful in a country with water containing disease-causing bacteria?
Answer: It makes pure water by evaporation and condensation, removing dissolved substances and helping produce safer drinking water.