This story comes from our news partner, ABC13. read the story here.
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Experts say that as the population here rises, the demand for drinking water will increase.
That’s why local researchers have been looking at the best way to use saltwater and turn it into purified drinking water.
The process is called desalination, and experts explained that this process could soon be implemented more in the region.
Physics expert Zhi Feng Ren said there are multiple ways to separate the salt from the water and purify it, such as vaporization, as well as reverse osmosis, which is a process of applying pressure to the salt water so the salt doesn’t go through.
Ren even spoke about electrodialysis, which takes the salt out and makes it into pure water.
“The purity of the water you produce really has different applications. Say, for agricultural applications, you don’t care about the high purity, but for drinking water, you care about all kinds of impurities you don’t want to put into your body,” Ren said
Desalination, Ren explained, needs financing. He described how the demand right now continues to increase as data centers also need fresh water since they use a lot of power.
In the fall of 2025, the Gulf Coast Water Authority told ABC13 that with an increase in the local population, the region will also need more drinking water.
The agency said it has been working on a study to desalinate water from the Brazos River, saying that if those findings go well, there could be a site created in the next 10 years.
In the meantime, a company called EPCOR Utilities is trying to bring a desalination plant to Texas City in the next five years and has its sights set on an abandoned facility off State Highway 146.