'Saving' innovation for 844 million people worldwide

Finding cheap ways to remove salt from seawater may help 844 million people worldwide without clean water.

Scientists have successfully built a small dish made of ultra-absorbent filter paper, with carbon nanotubes to absorb light, removing nearly 100% salt in the initial liquid.

This technique is essentially based on the traditional method: Heat the water until evaporation, leaving salt and other impurities. For solar water heating, people need to use heat-absorbing materials.

However, if the layers of heat-absorbing materials are normally clinging to salt, they will not be used. A new feature of the technique of using nanotubes is the removal of salt during the process of boiling water, to avoid damaging the device.

"Our research results have taken a step further to the practical application of steam generation technology from the Sun, demonstrating great potential in desalinating seawater, recovering resources from waste water , " engineers. Xiwang Zhang from Monash University, Australia said. "We hope this will be the starting point for further research on safe and clean water supply for millions of people."

The system uses cotton fibers with a diameter of 1mm to transport saltwater to the evaporation disc, where pure water is retained and salt is pushed to the edges. All processes operate with sunlight. In the experiment, the researchers measured light absorption up to 94% across the entire spectrum of the Sun. This is very high performance.

The device is capable of producing 6-8 liters of clean water per square meter of surface area per day. This number certainly won't stop.

Finding cheap ways to remove salt from seawater may help 844 million people worldwide without clean water.(Photo: Dunya News).

This is not the only way to desalinate. Last year, a team from the United States introduced solar technology based on hydrogels to remove salt from seawater, strong enough to operate on the Dead Sea.

The challenge now is to expand such methods to make them a reality.

"Water security is the biggest challenge facing the world in the 21st century, especially as the population grows at the same time as the effects of climate change," Zhang said. "Developing countries , limited resources will be most pronounced. "

Using solar energy to treat water is considered one of the sustainable solutions to address the scarcity of clean water in some places without affecting the environment and resources.

1. Turn seawater into fresh water at super cheap cost
2. Turn seawater into fresh water by solar energy