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[Sajuek]

I have started on a map with no fresh water, although I have got a nearby sea and I was wondering if it was possible to build a giant Dwarven Desanitization Plant to make the water drinkable? Using diagonal chambers and magma heated floors I was planning on creating something very simple, like this to give my dwarves fresh, drinkable water.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/70/Fractional_distillation_lab_apparatus.svg/300px-Fractional_distillation_lab_apparatus.svg.png

I don't know much about water physics in DF, so here are my questions before I take a few hours setting this up for nothing:

1. Does steam condense back into water when it cools?

2. Does steam follow real life physics? As in, will it rise to the top of the chamber.

3. Assuming both of the above is true, will I get fresh water in my collection chamber, or will it still be salt water?

Thanks!

[Sting_Auer]

There is no steam in DF>

Just pump salt water through a screw pump into an artificial reservoir that has never touched salt water, and you will have fresh water that you can drink.


Not that you need to drink water, you filthy elf.

[Sphalerite]

Salt in DF is determined by location.  If a tile has ever contained salt water, any water in that tile will be salty.  Saltiness also spreads by touch - if two adjacent tiles both contain water, and one is salty, the other will become salty.  Pumps transport water, but don't copy over the salt state when they do.  So you need to make a cistern in an area that has never contained salt water, and then pump water from the ocean into it, making sure that the water in the cistern never comes in contact with ocean water.

[Sajuek]

My wardwarves have very little luck in terms of not getting hit by stray Goblin masters.

A lot less extreme, but I guess it will have to do

[Yaotzin]

There is no steam in DF>

Sure there is. It's even dangerous like RL.

[Shinotsa]

Pumps contain two pocket dimensions opened by a small electrical current, one at or near the point where water vapour separates into individual atoms, and the other near absolute zero. With water's properties being changed so quickly a great suction is created, driving water in one side and out the other at a rate capable of draining rivers. The byproduct of the transition into steam and back to a liquid is that the water is pure.

The more you know

[Sting_Auer]

There is no steam in DF>

Sure there is. It's even dangerous like RL.

THat's not steam, that's deadly dust/magma mist (whatever it's called)

[Loud Whispers]

There is no steam in DF>

Sure there is. It's even dangerous like RL.

THat's not steam, that's deadly dust/magma mist (whatever it's called)

No there is steam...

Also, desalination plant?

Just use screwpumps and pump into a constructed cistern.

[Yaotzin]

There is no steam in DF>

Sure there is. It's even dangerous like RL.

THat's not steam, that's deadly dust/magma mist (whatever it's called)

Just dump a barrel of water on magma yo :p Lots of steam.

[Sphalerite]

No there is steam...

Sort of.  When water hits magma, it creates clouds of short-lived steam.  Unlike in previous versions, this steam is harmless.  It also doesn't condense into water, it just vanishes.

Just use screwpumps and pump into a constructed cistern.

Doesn't have to be constructed, just has to be in a location that has never held water.  Constructing an above-ground cistern is one way to do that, but in-ground cisterns with rough rock walls have been demonstrated to work, so long as you are careful where you place them.