Fresh water

Fresh water is a Naturally Occurring, Widely Available material. It is by definition a legitimate source material for this project. It is water obtained from the natural environment with a sufficiently low salt content (0.5g/L) that it is not considered salt water. This does not imply that it is safe to drink.

Uses

Primary

• Feedstock for water

Natural occurrence

{{#evt: service=youtube |id=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUPgSTUxcxU |alignment=right |dimensions=320x200 }} Fresh water can be obtained from many sources:

• Groundwater (springs and wells) is generally fresh water.
• Fresh Water occurs naturally as both rain and dew, as well as snow, sleet, and hail.
• Generally flowing water is fresh, so rivers and streams are good sources of fresh water
• Lakes usually contain fresh water
• Structural water occurs in many minerals. (e.g. Epsomite)
• Many plants contain an abundance of fresh water.

Hazards

• Drowning
• Overconsumption (>= 2L/hr for multiple hours when normally hydrated) can lead to hyponatremia
• Contaminated water can contain many pathogens

Production

Collect in watertight containers from any of the sources above.

Purification

Removal of biological contaminants

• Filtration
• Ultraviolet irradiation
• Chlorination

Removal of insoluble particulates

• Settling
• Filtration
• Flocculation and another filtration

Removal of chemical contaminants

• Addition of soluble iron III and aluminum III (chlorides, nitrates, and to a certain degree sulfates) can remove many common anions (hydroxides and carbonates)
• Distillation is an expensive but highly effective method of water purification, but a distillation rate of 2 (0.05ml) drops per second gives 0.1ml/s. This would require 3H20m per liter.

See Also

• Water
• Salt water