Desalinator

The Desalinator is a water-processing building that converts Salt Water and Brine into clean Water while producing Salt as a solid byproduct. It is useful for turning polluted coastal or geyser water sources into a usable freshwater supply, but it also creates a steady maintenance task because the accumulated salt must be emptied by Duplicants. If both Salt Water and Brine are present in the building at the same time, it desalinates both liquids simultaneously.

The building outputs Water and Salt at the same temperature as the input liquid, so the process itself does not change the liquid’s temperature. It also deletes a small amount of heat during operation: Salt Water loses about 4% of its SHC through the conversion, while Brine loses about 8%. The Desalinator passes regular Water and Polluted Water through without taking damage and without using power, so mixed piping can be used safely.

• Salt Water is processed at 5 kg/s into 4.65 kg/s Water and 0.35 kg/s Salt.
• Brine is processed at 5 kg/s into 3.5 kg/s Water and 1.5 kg/s Salt.
• The salt bin must be emptied when about 1000 kg of salt has accumulated.
• Because Brine produces more salt per second than Salt Water, a Desalinator handling Brine needs emptying more often.
• Feeding very cold Salt Water or Brine can freeze the output Water in pipes, so preheating input below-freezing sources to at least 0°C prevents pipe breakage.
• A Cool Salt Slush Geyser often benefits from preheating before desalination.
• The building has low mass and produces 8 kDTU/s while running, so it can overheat easily, especially if made from low-SHC materials.
• Extra thermal mass, liquid cooling, or higher-SHC construction materials help keep it within safe temperature limits.
• Gold Amalgam is especially risky here despite its overheat bonus, while Aluminum Ore is a better choice for thermal stability.
• An alternative to using the building is to boil Salt Water or Brine into steam and salt, then condense the steam back into Water, avoiding Duplicant emptying work and power use at the cost of much greater setup complexity.