Novel desalination devices use sunlight to provide fresh drinking water
It’s one of life’s most frustrating ironies that Earth’s surface is over 70 percent water, but most of that is undrinkable. Desalination is an important technology that may help unlock more drinking water, and now two independent teams have developed new types of solar-powered desalination Read More...
Scientists use an ultra-thin slice of wood to make seawater drinkable
As global warming worsens on our watch, there might eventually come a time when drinking water is harder to come by for a lot of the world. That’s why we need a better way to convert salt water to potable drinking water in case of emergencies. Inspired by the intricate system of water circulating Read More...
Scientists have managed to efficiently separate salt from water using sunlight
As competition for freshwater resources intensifies across the world, the prospect of using technology to tackle the problem is a tempting solution. Still, water desalination is one potential solution to the need for alternative sources of freshwater, current procedures are tremendously expensive Read More...
We’ve never been closer to sustainable desalination technology
When Cape Town came dangerously close to becoming the world’s first major city to run out of water, it was a wake-up call to all water-pressed cities around the world, such as Mexico City, Say Paulo, and Cairo. As the world’s population grows and climate change pushes temperatures up, water is Read More...
The waste product of desalination plants could be used to desalinate more water
When salt is removed from seawater in desalination plants, the byproduct is – not surprisingly – a lot of highly-concentrated salty brine. Ordinarily, this is just dumped back into the sea, which can harm the environment. Thanks to researchers at MIT, however, that brine could soon be used to Read More...
Seawater to freshwater through solar energy: A new low-cost technology
According to FAO estimates, by 2025 nearly 2 billion people may not have enough drinking water to satisfy their daily needs. One of the possible solutions to this problem is desalination, namely treating seawater to make it Read More...
Cyprus becomes testing ground for cutting-edge Australian solar technology
The Mediterranean island nation is bound by a European Union target of 13 percent of energy coming from renewable sources by 2020. It also needs energy to power desalination plants in order to remedy its water shortages. If the CSIRO’s (Australia’s national science agency) “solar thermal Read More...
California lays the groundwork for seawater desalination rules
In its fourth year of drought, with depleted aquifers and compromised farming communities, California is moving forward to securing the Pacific Ocean as a new source of water supplies. Assuming that the future will not look like the past, regulators started working on the regulatory framework for Read More...
MIT develops cheap, portable, solar-powered desalination system
Solar-powered desalination plants have been a promising technology for a while, but their prohibitive cost has prevented them from being considered a solution in water-deprived, typically poorer parts of the world. Using the electrodialysis process, a team from the Massachusetts Institute of Read More...