Problem 5.76 (Schroeder’s Intro to Thermal Physics)

Problem 5.76

Seawater has a salinity of 3.5%, meaning that if you boil away a kilogram of seawater, when you’re finished you’ll have 35 g of solids (mostly NaCl) left in the pot. When dissolved, sodium chloride dissociates into separate and ions.

(a) Calculate the osmotic pressure difference between seawater and fresh water. Assume for simplicity that all the dissolved salts in seawater are NaCl.
(b) If you apply a pressure difference greater than the osmotic pressure to a solution separated from pure solvent by a semipermeable membrane, you get reverse osmosis: a flow of solvent out of the solution. This process can be used to desalinate seawater. Calculate the minimum work required to desalinate one liter of seawater. Discuss some reasons why the actual work required would be greater than the minimum.

Solution:

Problem 5.76 Solution (Download)

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