142 Ecological Sustainability
water per day, or only about 0.2% of global water consumption (Schirber
2007).
As the world’s freshwater needs rise, technology has been busy devising
more energy-efcient means to desalinate water. Better membranes for RO
are being designed, and an electroosmosis system was developed by Siemens
Water Technologies in 2008 that uses electric elds that can desalinate 1 m
3
of seawater using only 1.5 kWh of energy. Freezing seawater can also yield
low-salt ice, and icebergs are a potential source of freshwater.
4.3.3 Reverse Osmosis
RO operates by forcing saline water through special nanopore membranes
at high pressure. The smaller water molecules pass easily through the mem-
brane’s pores, while larger, ioni ...