[bcheung]

Is it possible to do desalination entirely without electricity?

Ram pumps can pump water to a higher location that the water source without any added energy. The kinetic energy of the moving water is all that is needed. The waves supply the kinetic energy.

Once water is pumped into a water tower, then have a bunch of mirrors point at the tower to heat it up. Steam evaporates and flows down to a lower location.

Seems like once it is set up it would be completely stand alone without any electricity being needed. Not sure what kind of output it could generate or how efficient it is, but it wouldn't require any man-made energy.

[niftich]

Yes and no. It's possible, but not very efficient per space/work vs. returns. Efficiency can be improved by using electricity after all, through solar generation. See:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_still#Practical_consider...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_desalination

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar-powered_desalination_uni...

However, also see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seawater_greenhouse for a clever agriculture scheme.