[July 2019]
"Finding cheap and practical ways of removing salt from seawater could potentially help some of the 844 million people worldwide without regular access to clean water – and scientists just found a new nanoscale method for doing just that.
Using a tiny disc made of super-hydrophilic filter paper, layered with carbon nanotubes for light absorption, the new technique runs on nothing but sunlight, but is able to remove almost 100 percent of the salt in the original liquid.
The new approach is based on a traditional method: heat water until it steams and capture that, leaving the salt and other impurities behind. To turn water into steam using energy from our Sun, one needs to use solar thermal materials to efficiently convert that energy into heat.
But if these materials are covered by salt crystals from the evaporating water, the whole thing can grind to a halt. The new method successfully addresses this problem by maintaining a steady rate of water evaporation as the salts are harvested and removed from the process, to avoid them reducing efficiency."
https://www.sciencealert.com/new-system-can-remove-salt-from-seawater-running-on-just-the-power-of-the-sun
[July 2019]
"Finding cheap and practical ways of removing salt from seawater could potentially help some of the 844 million people worldwide without regular access to clean water – and scientists just found a new nanoscale method for doing just that.
Using a tiny disc made of super-hydrophilic filter paper, layered with carbon nanotubes for light absorption, the new technique runs on nothing but sunlight, but is able to remove almost 100 percent of the salt in the original liquid.
The new approach is based on a traditional method: heat water until it steams and capture that, leaving the salt and other impurities behind. To turn water into steam using energy from our Sun, one needs to use solar thermal materials to efficiently convert that energy into heat.
But if these materials are covered by salt crystals from the evaporating water, the whole thing can grind to a halt. The new method successfully addresses this problem by maintaining a steady rate of water evaporation as the salts are harvested and removed from the process, to avoid them reducing efficiency."
https://www.sciencealert.com/new-system-can-remove-salt-from-seawater-running-on-just-the-power-of-the-sun
"Finding cheap and practical ways of removing salt from seawater could potentially help some of the 844 million people worldwide without regular access to clean water – and scientists just found a new nanoscale method for doing just that.
Using a tiny disc made of super-hydrophilic filter paper, layered with carbon nanotubes for light absorption, the new technique runs on nothing but sunlight, but is able to remove almost 100 percent of the salt in the original liquid.
The new approach is based on a traditional method: heat water until it steams and capture that, leaving the salt and other impurities behind. To turn water into steam using energy from our Sun, one needs to use solar thermal materials to efficiently convert that energy into heat.
But if these materials are covered by salt crystals from the evaporating water, the whole thing can grind to a halt. The new method successfully addresses this problem by maintaining a steady rate of water evaporation as the salts are harvested and removed from the process, to avoid them reducing efficiency."
https://www.sciencealert.com/new-system-can-remove-salt-from-seawater-running-on-just-the-power-of-the-sun