Sunlight Powers Portable, Inexpensive Systems to Produce Drinking Water

 

A new generation of tech uses heat from the sun to provide clean, salt-free water

Solar-thermal technologies could process seawater and groundwater to make it drinkable at less cost. Credit: Warren Keelan

In an increasingly hot and crowded world, clean water is becoming a precious commodity. Two thirds of the global population will have problems accessing fresh water by 2025, and removing salt and contaminants from the oceans and groundwater is one way to slake humanity's thirst.

Today's large desalination plants, though, cost millions of dollars to build. Most use reverse osmosis, which forces seawater through salt-blocking membranes. The required electricity accounts for up to half of a plant's expenses, and the process leaves behind a supersalty, chemical-laced soup that can harm local ecosystems. Such facilities are typically powered by carbon-emitting fossil fuels; efforts have been made (especially in the Middle East, Asia and Africa) to use solar panels instead, but that also comes at a cost and does not address the toxic discharge

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