China Is Desalinating Sea Ice for Drinking Water

A technology transfer agreement between a university research team and corporate interests will soon enable China to begin producing fresh water from sea ice using a recently-developed desalination process. The equipment, which includes an ice-breaking platform and an ice-gathering mechanism, is designed to harvest vast amounts of ice from polar oceans and convert it into water that is suitable for drinking.

Compared to seawater that has a salinity of around 3 percent, sea ice is only about 0.5 percent salt, making it easier and less expensive to process. The national standard for water that can be used for drinking, agriculture and industry is 0.1 percent, and the cost of desalination using the new process is expected to be about 4 yuan (less than $1) per ton. By 2023, the company hopes to be producing a minimum of 1 billion cubic meters of fresh water per year.