I'm puzzled as to how Tesla managed to get a patent (granted) on this. Maybe it's for a very specific implementation of the extraction process using table salt, but I'd swear this is not a new phenomenon. Nor can phenomenons themselves patented, only specific implementations (which can get practically hairy very quickly, hence the mess the patent system currently is).

Sounds to me like yet another attempt, with enough spin to turn a planet, to again try "prove" how Tesla will be a game changer, by presenting something that's rather mediocre and mundane (at best) on closer inspection.

Simply put, in all these years (ever since his PayPal days) I have not seen a single thing come from Elon Musk that didn't turn out to involve some kind of clever fraud, business trickery, or downright deception on closer inspection. But apparently a substantial part of today's (global) society just loves to be fooled, rather than pay attention and actually understand things. I guess it's similar to what they say about governments .. we all get the ones we (collectively) deserve.