MAJOR, HUGE BREAKTHROUGH WITH ANNOUNCEMENT OF SOLAR POWERED DEVICE THAT DESALINATES SEAWATER
Clean drinking water is getting harder and harder to come by every minute that goes by. And that availability is only going to shrink ever faster moving forward. As it is, hundreds of millions of people in the world struggle to have enough safe, clean drinking water every day. And while scientists have worked on solutions for literally decades, it’s only now that there may at last be a solution on the horizon. Obviously, there is a LOT of seawater on planet earth. But desalinating it has proven to be too costly and inefficient. Until now, that is. Because engineers in China and at MIT have worked jointly on a project which now seems to be a huge breakthrough: a solar device that desalinates seawater, really well.
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SOLAR POWER AND NEW TECHNOLOGY DESALINATES SEAWATER INCREDIBLY EFFICIENTLY
The advent of efficient solar power generating technology has proven to be key to this success. This simply wasn’t possible, even just a few years ago. Solar panels have been more efficient at producing electricity (as in, cheaper) than traditional methods for several years now. And this new system that desalinates seawater is so efficient, it can create clean drinking water that is cheaper than what you get out of your tap. That fact is, in a word, stunning. The device works by having the contained seawater circulate in eddies that are similar to the “thermohaline” circulation of the ocean. But at an incredibly micro scale in comparison.
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BRIEFCASE-SIZED DEVICE DESALINATES 4-6 LITERS OF SEAWATER EVERY HOUR, FOR YEARS
That circulation, with the sun’s heat, forces the seawater to evaporate, essentially separating the water from the salt. The water vapor is then collected as condensation as pure, clean drinking water. This device, all by itself, should be garnering huge headlines all over the world. One of these devices as small as a suitcase could create 4-6 liters of drinkable water every hour. Even better? It could last several years before needing maintenance or replacement parts. So now, people living off grid or near ocean water can all have wireless, efficient means to have safe water to drink.
Now it’s up to imagination and industry to figure out how to scale this up for towns, cities and agriculture. You can read more about it here.
