tagged w/ sun energy
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"THERE is a lot of water on Earth, but more than 97% of it is salty and over half of the remainder is frozen at the poles or in glaciers. Meanwhile, around a fifth of the world’s population suffers from a shortage of drinking water and that fraction is expected to grow.
One answer is desalination—but it is an expensive answer because it requires a lot of energy. Now, though, a pair of Canadian engineers have come up with an ingenious way of using the heat of the sun to drive the process. Such heat, in many places that have a shortage of fresh water, is one thing that is in abundant supply."
One more excerpt:
"Moreover, the only electricity needed is the small amount required to pump the streams of water through the apparatus. All the rest of the energy has come free, via the air, from the sun."
http://www.economist.com/sciencetechnology/displayStory.cfm?story_id=14743791
At the article they explain that this method would only use less than 1 kWh of electricity to produce fresh water and no other paid-for source of power is needed.
In contrast with the current desalination methods:
Heating the water and Reverse osmosis.
They require 3.7 kilowatt hours (kWh) of energy to produce 1,000 litres of drinking water.
This shows me how creativity can accomplish innovation and with some tweaking and further research, we could suddenly get hit with a revolutionary invention.
What do you think?"THERE is a lot of water on Earth, but more than 97% of it is salty and over half... more
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