Water supply at Syowa Station, Antarctica

Abstract

The Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition (JARE) has sourced domestic water for daily use from ponds, snow drifts, and icebergs on sea ice at Syowa Station since the first wintering expedition. These water sources are dependent on weather conditions and maintenance of the sources requires considerable human effort and thermal energy. For example, the maintenance of outside water tanks and pipelines requires a lot of working force of wintering members and huge thermal energy which has been obtained from waste heat of engine generators. Here, we propose seawater desalination method using a reverse osmosis membrane to provide a reliable domestic water source to Syowa Station. Such a system could meet the station＇s water needs without requiring a large amount of staff time or heat energy.