'3 in 1' system: Using solar energy to produce electricity and desalination water

We need clean water to survive, we need electricity to sustain the new technological age, but producing one of these will often cost the other.

In the US alone, public water treatment systems use about 6% of the national electricity output. In contrast, thermal power plants suck up to 643,500,000,000 liters of water from nearby rivers and lakes each day. The plants will consume about 22 million liters of water and will not return it to nature at all.

Solar batteries need less water than thermal power plants, about 300 times but the cost of operation is expensive and the amount of electricity is not enough to make solar energy is not the optimal solution.

However, a team of researchers in Saudi Arabia has just successfully researched the device that transforms power plants into units that produce both electricity and fresh water. In early July, they published a science report describing a new technology that the Sun could do a couple of jobs.

This type of solar cell will solve the problem of energy and fresh water shortage worldwide.

These are solar panels that remove salt in seawater

The new equipment of the Middle East scientists is in beta, but they are confident it will solve the problem of energy and freshwater shortages around the world. To assemble the system, the scientists attached a water purifier to a solar cell system.

When placed in the sun, solar cells generate electricity and generate heat, as well as any other solar system. But instead of going into the atmosphere, heat is directed into the water purifier; Here they become the source of energy for 'fire' for desalination.

Solar cells generate electricity and heat, the heat will be directed into the water purifier.

To test the quality of the outlet water, the scientists put in salt water filters and water containing heavy metals (such as lead, copper, magnesium). The device vaporizes, propelling the steam through a plastic film capable of filtering salt and contaminants. Final result: Clean water meets the standards set by the World Health Organization.

According to calculations by scientists, the test device is about 1 meter wide capable of filtering out 1.7 liters of clean water per hour. The most suitable location for the machine will be a hot, dry climate, near water.

Then it will come to the household

To save more than 2 billion people who do not have clean water to drink, many other research teams have also sought to filter the water using solar energy. There's another startup called Zero Mass Water that uses solar power to get water from the air. Uravu, another startup from India, can use solar energy to filter 15 to 20 liters of water / day from the air.

But no research unit has been able to filter the salt water, and no system has produced electricity. The new research by Saudi brains converts 11% of sunlight into electricity, equivalent to the performance of conventional solar cell systems.

However, the new test system was successful within the laboratory. For field application, a little more research is needed.

' We hope to accelerate the research speed and soon apply this model to a larger scale ,' the team said enthusiastically.