You desalinate ocean water to produce fresh water, which you can use for crops, city utilities, etc. That reduces the strain on local aquifers and reservoirs, especially since California tends to overuse their supply of water (especially poignant for us in Utah; we all rely on the Colorado River).
Hydrogen extraction tends to use pure freshwater to prevent corrosion during the electrolysis process. There has been some research around using seawater directly, but I’m guessing there’s still a fair amount of work yet to do this at scale, and I certainly don’t think we’re there yet for ships.
These are two separate processes.
You desalinate ocean water to produce fresh water, which you can use for crops, city utilities, etc. That reduces the strain on local aquifers and reservoirs, especially since California tends to overuse their supply of water (especially poignant for us in Utah; we all rely on the Colorado River).
Hydrogen extraction tends to use pure freshwater to prevent corrosion during the electrolysis process. There has been some research around using seawater directly, but I’m guessing there’s still a fair amount of work yet to do this at scale, and I certainly don’t think we’re there yet for ships.