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posted by martyb on Saturday February 10 2018, @11:11PM   Printer-friendly
from the nobody-ever-heard-of-a-still? dept.

Researchers from the University of Alicante's research group in applied electrochemistry and electrocatalysis have developed a stand-alone system for desalinating and treating water through electrodialysis. The system is directly powered by solar energy and can be applied in off-grid areas.

Designed only for desalinating water, this is a sustainable, eco-friendly technology, as its energy is supplied by solar photovoltaic panels in a CO2-free process, thus not contributing to climate change.

According to research group director Vicente Montiel, "the new system requires no batteries and has none of the economic and environmental costs involved in managing empty batteries. Furthermore, it can be adapted and applied for treating water of many different origins, such as seawater, wells containing brackish water, treatment plants, industrial processes, etc., which makes it particularly well-suited to remote, off-grid areas." In this sense, this equipment can be employed to obtain clean water for human consumption, irrigation, street cleaning and others, both when there is no energy grid available and after natural disasters, such as earthquakes, floods or fires.

Montiel also points out that "the technology we designed can be a potential solution to drought, just like osmosis plants."

The research group already has a pilot and demonstration plant able to generate a cubic metre of drinking water every day. They are looking for companies interested in the commercial exploitation of the technology through licence and/or technical cooperation agreements.

Science Daily


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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 11 2018, @12:11AM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 11 2018, @12:11AM (#636179)

    So existing desalinization method but hooked a solar panel onto it for power.

    • (Score: 4, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Sunday February 11 2018, @12:27AM (3 children)

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Sunday February 11 2018, @12:27AM (#636183) Journal

      Yeah, that seems to be pretty close - except, they DO NOT hook a battery to it, so it doesn't work at night.

      I actually read TFA, and was confused by, first, a claim that they had something new, then second, another claim that there was nothing new here, just a different way of doing an old thing.

      Basically, we're back in the same area of logic that "on a computer" warrants a new patent, and then "on the internet" warrants yet another patent.

      • (Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday February 11 2018, @01:04AM (2 children)

        by frojack (1554) on Sunday February 11 2018, @01:04AM (#636193) Journal

        The other thing not mentioned is how much of a solar panel you need for a cubic meter of water per day.

        Will it fit in a life boat?
        How much maintenance?
        Any other consumables (chemicals) needed?

        If the only new thing is the power, its pretty un-interesting.

        --
        No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
        • (Score: 2) by legont on Sunday February 11 2018, @01:25AM (1 child)

          by legont (4179) on Sunday February 11 2018, @01:25AM (#636199)

          Yep, and how much oil is needed to produce and deliver it.

          --
          "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 11 2018, @02:34AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 11 2018, @02:34AM (#636220)

            Production and delivery costs are one-time charges that hopefully are balanced by years and years of cost-free operation.

    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday February 11 2018, @12:57AM (1 child)

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Sunday February 11 2018, @12:57AM (#636189) Journal

      So existing desalinization method but hooked a solar panel onto it for power.

      The most used desalination method on industrial scale is reverse osmosis.
      This seems to work based on photochemistry.

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
      • (Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday February 11 2018, @01:07AM

        by frojack (1554) on Sunday February 11 2018, @01:07AM (#636195) Journal

        RO is something of a maintenance headache, and it doesn't take much to have it go wrong, get contaminated, etc.
        Its energy intensive, uses delicate membranes, requires hi-pressure pumps, etc.

        Any solution approximating a free-flow powered only by a small solar plant would be better.

        --
        No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday February 11 2018, @12:58AM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Sunday February 11 2018, @12:58AM (#636190) Journal

    What's missing from TFA: what installed PV power one needs for that daily cubic-meter?
    Anyone managed to find the original, not dumbed-down paper?

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Sunday February 11 2018, @03:26AM (3 children)

    by fustakrakich (6150) on Sunday February 11 2018, @03:26AM (#636242) Journal

    Look! Up in the sky! Yeah, in some places there's too much desalination. And it would be nice if we didn't have to shovel it off our sidewalks! Instead of wasting energy to produce more, let's move what we have to where it is needed. Hook all those snow plows up to a pipeline to Phoenix.

    --
    La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
    • (Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday February 11 2018, @05:59PM (2 children)

      by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Sunday February 11 2018, @05:59PM (#636398) Homepage Journal

      I think you're talking about the Cloud. Why don't people say anymore, "let's use the Cloud"? People don't know this, but some of our great Farmers have been getting their water from the Cloud since our country got started -- and even before. City people are so politically correct, they say, "oh, global warming, we can't count on the Cloud anymore." But our Farmers know, a lot of them know, they can get all their water from the Cloud. And a lot of the time it works amazingly. Houston, so much water, they didn't know what to do with it all. Our farmers know. They turn it into bananas, into cheese, into caviar, into so many things. I'm setting our Farmers free to innovate, thrive, and grow. Oh, are they happy they voted for me! They are so lucky that I gave them that privilege. The other choice wasn't going to work out too well for the Farmers, I hate to tell you -- or the Miners or anybody else. We gave our Farmers the biggest Tax Cut in history. I'm renegotiating NAFTA to protect our Farmers' markets. And I'm working with Congress to greatly reform Immigration and to protect our southern border. Right now those are a DISASTER, I'm going to make them so much better.

      • (Score: 2, Interesting) by fustakrakich on Monday February 12 2018, @12:17AM

        by fustakrakich (6150) on Monday February 12 2018, @12:17AM (#636505) Journal

        Ah yes, The Clouds... You like fart jokes [mit.edu]?

        Faith! whether permitted or not, I must, I must crap!

        --
        La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
      • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday February 12 2018, @12:22AM

        by fustakrakich (6150) on Monday February 12 2018, @12:22AM (#636507) Journal

        Whoops! Ignore previous post! I meant:

        Oh! adorable Clouds, I revere you and I too am going to let off my thunder, so greatly has your own affrighted me.

        --
        La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday February 11 2018, @03:29AM (2 children)

    by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Sunday February 11 2018, @03:29AM (#636245) Journal

    I can't believe it's taken this long for someone to make the obvious, Patrick-Starr-level observation ("What if we took the solar panels from HERE, and put them on the desalinators HERE?"). As a bonus, we get a gestalt entity out of this, something whose coherent whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

    Good grief, I've only been saying we should combine green power with desalinization since, what, 2002 in senior year of high school when I first seriously started getting into this stuff...?

    --
    I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
    • (Score: 2) by turgid on Tuesday February 13 2018, @08:47PM (1 child)

      by turgid (4318) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 13 2018, @08:47PM (#637260) Journal

      Someone once said (I think I got it from a fortune cookie when I logged in years ago) that you shouldn't worry about people stealing your ideas. If you have a really good idea, you'll have to shove it down their throats. Some of the biggest and best ideas are the simplest. The thing is, often things don't get invented because the people who know how to solve the problem don't know of that particular problem. The other thing about human beings is, there is a large percentage of the population that just doesn't think like that. They never think of solutions to problems. Or it would never occur to them to try to solve a problem. They are often the ones that will tell you why a good idea is crazy and will never work.
      Now, back to work on my hyperdrive...

      • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday February 13 2018, @09:51PM

        by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Tuesday February 13 2018, @09:51PM (#637283) Journal

        The reason is lack of political will, or more accurately, political will *against* it. It doesn't create massive profit, you see.

        --
        I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
  • (Score: 1) by progo on Sunday February 11 2018, @06:16AM

    by progo (6356) on Sunday February 11 2018, @06:16AM (#636280) Homepage

    > The research group already has a pilot and demonstration plant able to generate a cubic metre of drinking water every day.

    That is not a complete claim. How much land does it require? How much did the solar panel array or solar power plant cost?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 11 2018, @03:50PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 11 2018, @03:50PM (#636366)

    this should make the reverse-de-salinization team happy:
    now they can destroy all the fresh water dams in the world, free all the fish and let all the
    pre-desalinated water run into the ocean and turn brackish!
    thanks to this new wonder, we can get all the fresh water on demand right from the ocean. no more need for dams!

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