[p2p-research] Breakthrough Low-Power Desalination and Purification Technology Brings Clean...

[Ryan]

  Sent to you by Ryan via Google Reader: Breakthrough Low-Power
Desalination and Purification Technology Brings Clean Water To Remote
Villages via Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future
Now by Stuart Fox on 3/23/10

High costs, in money and energy, limit the usefulness of desalination
as a way to provide drinkable water in disaster areas. However, a new
method could lead to portable desalination devices simple enough to run
off solar power or a battery, but powerful enough to supply a family,
or even a small village, with clean water. Additionally, the new
desalination device also cleanses water of biological contaminants.

Developed by scientists at MIT, the desalination device is about the
size of a postage stamp, and can be fit together into larger daisy
chains. An eight-inch-wide array of the desalination chips can produce
four gallons of clean water every hour, while only using as much
electricity as a light bulb. Plus, when tested with water mixed with
plastic bits, human blood, and miscellaneous proteins in addition to
salt, the unit pumped out 99-percent-pure water.

The desalination chips separate water from contaminants by repelling
the foreign particles electrically. Since this method does not use
filter, the system can operate without high pressures. Simply pour the
contaminated or sea water in the top, and wait for the pure water to
come out of the bottom.

According to the developers, it will take about two years to develop a
commercial product containing 10,000 desalination chips. Whether this
technique can expand beyond portable low-energy systems, and into the
sort of large-scale desalination that provides many Middle Eastern
countries with potable water, remains to be seen.

[Technology Review]

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