MIT engineers and collaborators developed a solar-powered device that avoids the salt-clogging issues of other designs. Engineers at MIT and in China are aiming to turn seawater into drinking water with a completely passive device that is inspired by the ocean, and powered by the sun. In a pap
There are concerns, but all of our water makes it’s way to surface systems or rivers and eventually the ocean now already. I don’t think we will be dumping the fresh water we just desalinated directly back…it will be used, to though the sewerage system, and then make its way back the way our water currently does.
That said, there are valid concerns around salt concentration if we dump the salt back, and heat can be an issue as well.
Issues like that worry me. The oceans are already heating up and killing the wildlife. Not that we have much of a choice as water demand rises, but we should be analyzing and watching carefully as we desalinate. We probably won’t and in 100 years there will be headlines like “Ocean water boils sea creatures slive! Who would have seen this coming?”