What do you think of the work of Hans Eppinger? He tried to make seawater drinkable. If this is possible,do you think

Question: What do you think of the work of Hans Eppinger? He tried to make seawater drinkable. If this is possible,do you think this will solve world thirst?
- Keywords:
  global,
  health,
  water
Asked by Senkoh to Alex, Laura, Lesley, Richard, vediacan on 16 Jun 2015.
- Richard Prince answered on 16 Jun 2015:
  
  Hi Senkoh,
  Eppinger? A vile man and a coward.
  It is possible to make seawater drinkable. You evaporate the water and condense it to remove the salt (desalination). If you power this with a renewable energy (sun, wave wind are all viable as we are talking about sunny areas of the world), then it is a great way to provide drinking water. The challenge will be how to transport large quantities of water inland – that will also take a lot of energy.
  Best wishes
  Richard
- Vedia Can answered on 16 Jun 2015:
  
  Dear Senkoh!
  
  Thank you for the question.
  
  I agree with Richard, Eppinger was a very vile man but a keen scientist; he wanted to find a discovery (unfortunately, he went around it the wrong way!). As we know it is possible to make seawater drinkable but there maybe problems with the purity of the water; bacterial/ fungal contaminants (but these issues can be overcome), and as mentioned by Richard, transportation of this water maybe problematic. However, having said all this, it would solve world thirst.
  
  Best Wishes,
  
  Vedia
- Laura Newton answered on 16 Jun 2015:
  
  Hey!
  
  Recently there was a competition where scientists were challenged to develop a better method for making saltwater drinkable (although here it’s ground water not seawater). A team from MIT won. They use solar panels to provide the energy for electrodialysis and then treat the water with UV light to kill any bacteria. They found it was very efficient so maybe this new method will become more widespread as the planet gets hotter and our demand for water increases.
  You can read more about it here: http://www.iflscience.com/environment/new-system-uses-sun-turn-salty-groundwater-drinking-water
  
  Thanks for your question!
  Laura

Comments

Richard commented on 16 Jun 2015:

@Vedia. I don’t think anyone who performs experiments on people that are designed to kill them in a horrible manner should be called a scientist. It wasn’t science, it was sadism.

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- vediacan commented on 16 Jun 2015:
  
  I was trying to remain diplomatic, I completely agree with you, definitely sadism.
  
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Question: What do you think of the work of Hans Eppinger? He tried to make seawater drinkable. If this is possible,do you think this will solve world thirst?