Originally Posted By: Mark_M
Wouldn't distillation be easier than all that filtering, treating and pumping stuff? It might be slow, but you could let it cook all day and wind up with plenty of purified water, right? Or do some impurities make it through the boiling/condensation process?

Besides which, the still could be used to produce grain alcohol for fuel and barter if SHTF.


Distillation is not without potential issues. Distillation will reliably remove contaminates that vaporize above 100C, like salts and minerals, but materials that vaporize at lower temperatures will come off before the water does. If the water is contaminated by alcohols and lighter petroleum products they will get through.

Generally, there are many finer points I'm skipping over and running a still is something of an art form, the timing of the distillation will go from the most to least volatile. In a commercial process or lab they they can finely separate the individual components by controlling the time and temperature.

There is also the matter of fuel use.