An eco-sustainable system to make sea water drinkable. This is how the new solar-powered watermaker proposed by MIT is presented, which thanks to this new project won the Desal 2015 award. Villages in India where there is no electricity will be able to have an off-grid watermaker available.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him
An eco-sustainable system for make salt water drinkable. Thus the new is presented solar powered watermaker proposed by the MIT, which thanks to this new project won the Desal Award 2015. The villages ofIndia where there is no electricity, they can have an off-grid watermaker available.
It is a real one photovoltaic watermaker which makes it possible to make seawater drinkable at low cost through a new method of reverse electrolysis. The award just awarded to MIT in Boston is proposed by the United States Agency for International Development.
The photovoltaic desalinator is able to isolate salty ions and disinfect the water thanks to ultraviolet rays. This is how, thanks to clean and renewable energy such as that provided by the sun, it will be much easier to make sea water drinkable.
THEgoal of MIT it is very clear: to provide villages in India where there is no connection to the electricity grid with a desalinator that, thanks to solar energy, allows them to obtain drinking water in those locations where the aquifer is salty.
All over the world we find both fresh and salt water aquifers. The problem mainly concerns India, where 60% of the aquifers contain salt water. And it is precisely a large part of the area where these aquifers are located that is not served by electricity that allows the use of common desalinators.
A photovoltaic watermaker could be enough for provide enough clean water to a village of 2000-5000 people. The use of the desalinator in India would be facilitated by the fact that the groundwater, even if not drinkable, is relatively low in salinity compared to sea water. The moderately salty water from these aquifers is not toxic but can have long-term adverse health effects.
One of the big problems of the Indian village communities is the water supply. The absence of common drinking water from the groundwater could lead the population, according to MIT experts, to go in search of other sources of water, potentially contaminated.
Hence, the new system could help expand access to drinking water in India. In some homes they are currently used domestic filtration systems to treat water, but in the opinion of experts the photovoltaic desalinator would be much more effective and safe and would guarantee the monitoring of water quality.
A further advantage concerns the energy saving. MIT found that such a desalinator system can provide potable water using about half the energy required by a reverse osmosis system.
The research was funded by Jain Irrigation Systems, an Indian company that builds and installs solar-powered systems, and was sponsored by MIT's Tata Center for Technology and Design. The research in question was published in the scientific journal Desalination.
Marta Albè
Photo source: mit.edu
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