Differences in working principles ● Reverse osmosis relies on physical separation, separating water molecules under pressure through a semipermeable membrane. ● Distillation is based on phase change, separating impurities in water through heating and condensation processes.

The initial construction cost of the Sorek Desalination Plant was about $400 million, while the construction cost of the Carlsbad Desalination Plant was as high as $1 billion. As the world's largest desalination plant, the Ras Al Desalination Plant cost as much as $7.3 billion to build.