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Re:Simple, solar-powered water desalination by benevol on Friday February 07, 2020 @03:54PM (#22270817)
> For large-scale desalination, however, it is almost certainly more cost-effective to use solar panels, batteries, and large scale reverse osmosis systems.

For large scale desalination, you need to attach tiny magnetic particles (think nano-scale) to the salt, and then extract it with magnets. And as a byproduct, you'll get Lithium.

Re:Simple, solar-powered water desalination by ineedasername on Friday February 07, 2020 @09:06PM (#22273249)
Is thata dangerous byproduct? Or is the lithium isolated and of usable quality as feed stock for the battery industry?
Re:Simple, solar-powered water desalination by thombat on Friday February 07, 2020 @06:20PM (#22272253)
For a sodium ion in solution it's more a question of pico-scale. And since most sodium salts are quite soluble you'll need some pretty exotic glue to attach that nano-magnetite.