At present, seawater desalination methods include seawater freezing, electrodialysis, distillation, reverse osmosis and ammonium carbonate ion exchange. At present, reverse osmosis membrane method and distillation method are the mainstream in the market. Seawater desalination is the production of fresh water by seawater desalination. It is an open-source incremental technology to realize the utilization of water resources, which can increase the total amount of fresh water without being affected by time, space and climate, and can ensure the stable supply of drinking water and industrial boilers for coastal residents.

Worldwide, more than 100 scientific research institutions in more than100 countries are conducting research on seawater desalination, and hundreds of seawater desalination facilities with different structures and capacities are working. A modern large-scale seawater desalination plant can produce thousands, tens of thousands or even nearly one million tons of fresh water every day. The cost of water is decreasing, and in some countries it has been reduced to almost the same price as tap water. In some areas, the amount of desalinated water has reached the scale of national and urban water supply.