Drinking water at Scott Base
Scott Base uses reverse osmosis to treat seawater. Membranes act as very fine filters to block salt and other contaminants.
Jargon alert
Reverse osmosis produces pure water. The process forces water through a semipermeable membrane to separate it from impurities. In this case, it is separating water from salt.
Osmosis is a natural process and is the movement of water across a semipermeable membrane from a high concentration of water molecules to a lower concentration of water molecules until an equilibrium is reached.
Heat trace systems (heat tracers) prevent pipes from freezing in cold climates like Antarctica. Methods include using a heat source and/or insulation.
Question for discussion
Why do you think Scott Base uses seawater instead of melting ice from icebergs or glaciers?
Transcript
Voiceover
Water is vital for human life. In Antarctica, the incredibly dry conditions mean that people working there need to drink up to 5 litres of water a day to stay properly hydrated. However, there’s no rainfall in Antarctica and very little snow to melt for water, so how do they generate water for drinking and for washing and cooking?
Scott Base has a special system to produce drinkable water from seawater. Seawater is sucked up through pipes from the ocean. It is pumped in at high pressure and forced through membranes in a process called reverse osmosis or RO. The reverse osmosis process removes salt, microorganisms and larger ocean critters to produce water that meets New Zealand’s drinking water standards.
The water is then moved around the base in pipes with heat tracers around them to stop it from freezing.
Acknowledgements
Footage of Scott Base, Antarctic landscapes, Antarctic science field camp, the Scott Base water plant and PowerPoint slide on dehydration, courtesy of Dianne Christenson and Carol Brieseman
Antarctic water pipe with heat tracers (at McMurdo Station), Paul Coldren. CC BY 4.0
Carol Brieseman and Dianne Christenson visited Antarctica with support from the Antarctica New Zealand Community Engagement Programme
