Water
Improved polymer membranes may simplify desalination, reduce cost
With worries about a worldwide water crisis looming, the process of turning salty water into drinking water, long regarded as expensive, is looking up. A University of Virginia engineering professor is exploring ways to improve polymer membranes to make desalination simpler and less expensive. Read More...
Why a man who hates plastic water bottles is making plastic water bottles
Donald Thomson's water bottle solution? Throw them on the roof. Donald Thomson, a 56-year-old, Canadian-born builder, entrepreneur and self-taught designer, launched ‘A’Gua-brand water bottles in Costa Rica earlier this year. But he sees no contradiction in his current endeavor: Read More...
Can entrepreneurship in Africa make clean water more accessible?
A father-and-son team from Colorado Springs are providing entrepreneurs in East Africa with equipment to filtrate, bottle and sell water along with the opportunity to grow their own business from the ground Read More...
This personal solar desalinator delivers fresh water to people who need it
It's simple technology that can produce up to a gallon of water a day, which could be useful in disaster recovery. Put Mike Wofsey’s Water Wasp out in the sun, fill it with filthy seawater, and wait. A day later you can enjoy fresh, clean and non-salty water. Desalination is expensive, but Read More...
Los Angeles aims to build plant to recycle sewage into drinking water
For more than 80 years, the Metropolitan Water District has paved the way for Southern California's epic growth by securing water from hundreds of miles away. This week, the mammoth agency said it wants to invest closer to home in what would be one of the world's largest plants to recycle sewage Read More...
Harnessing solar energy for agriculture
Facing simmering hot weather almost for nine months in a year, Vellore district is eminently suited for harnessing of solar energy for various purposes. The government is granting almost 80 per cent subsidy to farmers coming forward to install solar pumpsets for energising irrigation pump sets. K. Read More...
Can solar desalination slake the world's thirst?
Solar desalination is a technique used to remove salt from water via a specially designed still that uses solar energy to boil seawater and capture the resulting steam, which is in turn cooled and condensed into pristine freshwater. Salt and other impurities are left behind in the still. Less than Read More...
To relief water stress, use clean energy (and avoid fracking)
Knowledge is power. We all know that using clean energy is good because it reduces our impact on the environment. But did you know that clean energy and our access to clean water are also connected in an important way? Conventional power plants are significant water users, accounting for 45 Read More...
New greenhouse can save farmers in Middle East 90 per cent on water
A greenhouse using water evaporated from plants to cool the crops could lead to farmers using 90 per cent less of the precious resource. Unveiled on Monday by Dubai’s International Centre for Biosaline Agriculture, the system would mean enormous savings for a country in which 56 per cent of Read More...
This self-filling water bottle mimics a desert beetle
A US startup is developing a self-filling water bottle that sucks moisture from the atmosphere to create condensation, in the same way the humble Namib desert beetle does. The beetle, endemic to Africa’s Namib desert—where there is just 1.3cm of rainfall a year—has inspired a fair Read More...