Freshwater has become an increasingly precious resource. A major 2018 report warned that a quarter of the world’s population lives in areas that are under water stress. The climate crisis is worsening the situation by causing places that rely on snowpack for water to runoff earlier, an impact on display in California right now.
The new research published in the Journal for Membrane Science chronicles a unique way to desalinate water. The team designed a nanofiber membrane (a very good screen of extremely small things) which they say could turn seawater into drinking water in minutes.
And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future
(IFL Science)…research into desalination devices is at an all-time high, with the knowledge that a portable, cheap device could change the world – except, doing so is extremely difficult. Desalination requires energy, often large surface areas, and the waste product (brine) is a salty slurry that can cause damage to ocean ecosystems.
Now, researchers from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts, have created a desalination device the size of a briefcase capable of creating clean drinking water from salty or brackish water, breaking through one of the largest barriers preventing desalination from reaching those that need it most.
Portable desalination devices would be the ideal solution to provide access to fresh water in extremely rural areas or those that are hit by natural disasters. However, current solutions rely on high-pressure pumps that are not suited to such scenarios.
To create a deployable and portable solution, the researchers looked to electrodialysis, a process where charged membranes separate ions from water, that has shown promise in desalination. Alongside the proven results, electrodialysis has seen energy efficiency improvements over the past years, making it a more viable option for a portable desalination device.
The supply–demand imbalance of clean water has resulted in a global sustainability crisis. The United Nations World Water Developments Report 2023 reveals that 2–3 billion people are suffering from a shortage of water.
Seawater desalination via membrane separation offers a promising approach to this crisis. However, most membranes are restricted by low water flux because the membrane quality is challenged by harsh conditions and/or complex processes in preparation, leading to low water productivity and low energy efficiency. Thus, it is essential to develop desalination membranes with a high flux.
A research group led by Prof. Zeng Gaofeng at Shanghai Advanced Research Institute (SARI) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with Prof. Shi Guosheng at Shanghai University, has developed graphdiyne composite membranes that achieve nearly complete salt rejection and ultrahigh water flux in seawater desalination. Their results were published in Nature Water on Sept. 4.
Water scarcity around the world is a bigger problem than ever, and desalination is critical to solving it. The best available technologies for separating salt from seawater, though, are costly and require a great deal of maintenance.
A team of researchers has now developed a durable and cost-efficient filtering membrane that could increase the number of people across the globe getting clean, safe water. The results of their work, from the lab of Prof. Menachem Elimelech in collaboration with Nanjing University of Science & Technology, are published in Science.
Using waste to purify water may sound counterintuitive. But at TU Wien, this is exactly what has now been achieved. Researchers have developed a special nanostructure to filter a widespread class of harmful dyes from water.
A crucial component is a material that is considered waste: used cellulose, for example in the form of cleaning cloths or paper cups. The cellulose is utilized to coat a fine nano-fabric to create an efficient filter for polluted water. The paper is published in the journal Small Science.
University of Missouri scientists are battling against an emerging enemy of human health: nanoplastics. Much smaller in size than the diameter of an average human hair, nanoplastics are invisible to the naked eye.
Linked to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases in people, nanoplastics continue to build up, largely unnoticed, in the world's bodies of water. The challenge remains to develop a cost-effective solution to get rid of nanoplastics while leaving clean water behind.
That's where Mizzou comes in. Recently, researchers at the university created a new liquid-based solution that eliminates more than 98% of these microscopic plastic particles from water.
Simple technique removes over 98% of nanoplastic particles from water
By Joe Salas
August 26, 2024
Microplastics. We've found them in the Arctic sea and even frozen into the ice. The Mariana Trench, the deepest part of all our oceans, is polluted with plastic debris. Mount Everest has microplastic contamination. Our drinking water and food, especially processed foods in single-use packaging, are contaminated with microplastics. Recent studies have found microplastics in our blood, lungs, liver, and kidneys ... They've even been found in the placentas of unborn babies.
Studies on the adverse health effects of microplastics in the human body have only recently been done. Respiratory, gastrointestinal, endocrine, developmental and reproductive issues, and even cancers are starting to be linked to the consumption and inhalation of microplastics. Micro and nanoplastics are inescapable. But now researchers from the University of Missouri have developed a relatively simple and safe method of extracting over 98% of nanoplastic particles from water.
All-in-one solution captures and destroys ‘forever chemicals’ using light
By Paul McClure
August 30, 2024
Proposed methods of removing toxic ‘forever chemicals’ from water have either only trapped the chemicals or broken them down. A new study has demonstrated a method that does both – quickly and cheaply.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, more commonly called PFAS or ‘forever chemicals,’ are a group of synthetic chemicals that resist degradation – hence the forever moniker – and pose a risk to the environment and us.
Now, chemical engineers at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada have come up with an all-in-one solution for trapping and breaking down these forever chemicals into harmless components. Their method is explained in a recently published study.
“PFAS are notoriously difficult to break down, whether they’re in the environment or in the human body,” said Dr Johan Foster, an associate professor of chemical and biological engineering in UBC’s faculty of applied science and the study’s co-corresponding author. “Our system will make it possible to remove and destroy these substances in the water supply before they can harm our health.”
Solar-powered Desalination System Requires No Extra Batteries October 8, 2024
Introduction:
(Eurkalert) MIT engineers have built a new desalination system that runs with the rhythms of the sun.
The solar-powered system removes salt from water at a pace that closely follows changes in solar energy. As sunlight increases through the day, the system ramps up its desalting process and automatically adjusts to any sudden variation in sunlight, for example by dialing down in response to a passing cloud or revving up as the skies clear.
Because the system can quickly react to subtle changes in sunlight, it maximizes the utility of solar energy, producing large quantities of clean water despite variations in sunlight throughout the day. In contrast to other solar-driven desalination designs, the MIT system requires no extra batteries for energy storage, nor a supplemental power supply, such as from the grid.
The engineers tested a community-scale prototype on groundwater wells in New Mexico over six months, working in variable weather conditions and water types. The system harnessed on average over 94 percent of the electrical energy generated from the system’s solar panels to produce up to 5,000 liters of water per day despite large swings in weather and available sunlight.
“Conventional desalination technologies require steady power and need battery storage to smooth out a variable power source like solar. By continually varying power consumption in sync with the sun, our technology directly and efficiently uses solar power to make water,” says Amos Winter, the Germeshausen Professor of Mechanical Engineering and director of the K. Lisa Yang Global Engineering and Research (GEAR) Center at MIT. “Being able to make drinking water with renewables, without requiring battery storage, is a massive grand challenge. And we’ve done it.”
(Eurekalert) Paris — An international group of leaders and experts warns that unless humanity acts with greater boldness and urgency, an increasingly out-of-balance water cycle will wreak havoc on economies and humanity worldwide.
In a landmark report, The Economics of Water: Valuing the Hydrological Cycle as a Global Common Good, the Global Commission on the Economics of Water says the water crisis puts at risk more than half of the world’s food production by 2050. It also threatens an 8% loss of GDP in countries around the world on average by 2050, with as much as a 15% loss in lower-income countries, and even larger economic consequences beyond.
Weak economics, destructive land use, and the persistent mismanagement of water resources have combined with the worsening climate crisis to put the global water cycle under unprecedented stress, the Commission says.
Nearly three billion people and over half of the world’s food production are in areas experiencing drying, or unstable trends in total water availability. Further, several cities are sinking due to the loss of water below the ground.
“Today, half of the world's population faces water scarcity. As this vital resource becomes increasingly scarce, food security and human development are at risk — and we are allowing this to happen,” observed Johan Rockström, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and one of the Commission’s four co-chairs. “For the first time in human history, we are pushing the global water cycle out of balance. Precipitation, the source of all freshwater, can no longer be relied upon due to human caused climate and land use change, undermining the basis for human wellbeing and the global economy."
University of Texas at El Paso Student Develops Award-winning Method to Desalinate Water October 29, 2024
Introduction:
(Eurekalert) EL PASO, Texas (Oct. 29, 2024) – Tayia Oddonetto was an undergraduate student when her professor inspired her to solve water scarcity.
“During class, the professor said that if someone discovered how to turn brine, water with a high salt concentration, into something of value, it’d be revolutionary for the planet,” said Oddonetto. “At that moment, I told myself I was going to be the one who found the solution for brine, and that thought has never left me.”
Oddonetto’s perseverance paid off. Her UTEP (University of Texas at El Paso) research on brine desalination — a novel method that can convert over 90% of salt water to fresh water — recently earned her first place and funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering Research Centers Perfect Pitch Competition.
Oddonetto, now a doctoral student in environmental science and engineering, specifically developed and pitched salt-free, electrodialysis metathesis, a novel approach to the desalination of brine, or salt, water. The technique is described in the December 2024 issue of the journal Desalination, and differs from reverse osmosis (RO), a process by which salt in water is removed.
Although RO is the standard in desalination, Oddonetto said, one drawback is that it has a limited water recovery and only converts up to 85% of salt water into fresh water leaving the remaining 15% of water as concentrated brine. This leftover brine is typically injected underground via a process called deep-well injection. But deep-well injection has consequences, such as environmental risks and the waste of valuable metals and minerals, Oddonetto explained, including lithium which is used in the development of phones, laptops and electric vehicles.
Modeling and Analysis Reveals Technological and Environmental Challenges to Increasing Water Recovery from Desalination November 18, 2024
Introduction:
(Eurekalert) Climate change is making water scarcer. A promising method to combat this problem is desalination technology because it can tap seawater. Though desalination has potential, it also brings risks with environmental impact, cost, and accessibility. Zero liquid discharge (ZLD) technology aims to increase water recovery from desalination by squeezing more water out of desalination brine. ZLD can help reduce water scarcity and waste from desalination plants, but comes at increased costs and, potentially, increased environmental effects from desalination.
In a new analysis by a team led by Northwestern Engineering’s Jennifer Dunn that uses a novel optimization model, researchers concluded that while incorporating ZLD into desalination plants is a valuable way to fight future water scarcity. The process, however, poses notable tradeoffs when it comes to energy use, disposal of water that has salt, and cost for low-income areas.
Conclusion:
“Desalination can’t be the only solution,” Dunn said. “In some areas, it’s essential, but it must be part of a broader water management strategy.”
Dunn pointed out that several countries are taking a “multi-faceted” approach to address a lack of water by combining desalination with methods such as water recycling, rainwater harvesting, and conservation measures. That mix of techniques has obvious advantages, better preparing communities for unpredictable resources and increasing demand.
"Desalination is crucial in certain regions, but it can’t be the only answer to water scarcity," Dunn said. "To make real progress, we need to look at it as one piece of a broader, more sustainable water management strategy that’s adapted to the unique needs and constraints of each area."
Water desalination plants could replace expensive chemicals with new carbon cloth electrodes that remove boron from seawater, an important step of turning seawater into safe drinking water.
A study describing the new technology has been published in Nature Water by engineers at the University of Michigan and Rice University.
Boron is a natural component of seawater that becomes a toxic contaminant in drinking water when it sneaks through conventional filters for removing salts. Seawater's boron levels are around twice as high as the World Health Organization's most lenient limits for safe drinking water, and five to 12 times higher than the tolerance of many agricultural plants.
"Most reverse osmosis membranes don't remove very much boron, so desalination plants typically have to do some post treatment to get rid of the boron, which can be expensive," said Jovan Kamcev, U-M assistant professor of chemical engineering and macromolecular science and engineering and a co-corresponding author of the study. "We developed a new technology that's fairly scalable and can remove boron in an energy-efficient way compared to some of the conventional technologies."
New Water Purification Technology Helps Turn Seawater Into Drinking Water Without Tons of Chemicals January 20, 2025
Introduction:
(Eurekalert) Water desalination plants could replace expensive chemicals with new carbon cloth electrodes that remove boron from seawater, an important step of turning seawater into safe drinking water.
A study describing the new technology has been published in Nature Water by engineers at the University of Michigan and Rice University.
Boron is a natural component of seawater that becomes a toxic contaminant in drinking water when it sneaks through conventional filters for removing salts. Seawater's boron levels are around twice as high as the World Health Organization's most lenient limits for safe drinking water, and five to 12 times higher than the tolerance of many agricultural plants.
"Most reverse osmosis membranes don't remove very much boron, so desalination plants typically have to do some post treatment to get rid of the boron, which can be expensive," said Jovan Kamcev, U-M assistant professor of chemical engineering and macromolecular science and engineering and a co-corresponding author of the study. "We developed a new technology that's fairly scalable and can remove boron in an energy-efficient way compared to some of the conventional technologies."
In seawater, boron exists as electrically neutral boric acid, so it passes through reverse osmosis membranes that typically remove salt by repelling electrically charged atoms and molecules called ions. To get around this problem, desalination plants normally add a base to their treated water, which causes boric acid to become negatively charged. Another stage of reverse osmosis removes the newly charged boron, and the base is neutralized afterward by adding acid. Those extra treatment steps can be costly.
Sea Water Purification Technique Outperforms Commonly Used Materials, Even Activated Carbon February 27, 2025
Introduction:
(Eurekalert) Researchers at Nagoya University in Japan, led by Yusuke Yamauchi and Yusuke Asakura, in collaboration with Xingtao Xu at Zhejiang Ocean University, have discovered a new technique for improving the electrodes that convert seawater into potable water using oxygen. The findings were reported in Nature Communications.
“As the world’s population has been increasing, water scarcity will likely become a critical issue,” Yamauchi said, explaining the motivation behind the study. “We were excited to develop a material that outperformed all existing materials, even activated carbon.”
The technique works by removing ions from seawater using electrodes, leaving deionized, drinkable water. In the process, ions from seawater are attracted to the electrode surface and charged ions are stored in an electric double layer formed there. In addition to purifying water, the ions can be extracted from the electrodes following separation, allowing useful ions, such as sodium, to be repurposed for industrial processes.
The most commonly used electrodes are porous carbonaceous electrodes, which use a carbon and nitrogen base with pores to create a high surface area for extracting ions from liquids. The researchers theorized that 'heteroatom doping,' which introduces atoms to alter a material's structure and improve performance, could improve electrode conductivity and stability.
“We used oxygen for doping, as oxygen creates synergistic effects with nitrogen that increase the adsorption of ions. We found that in the presence of oxygen, the affinity of nitrogen for ions was increased,” Asakura said. “We were excited to discover that oxygen affects capacitive deionization. Our team was the first to demonstrate this role of it.”
There's a Surprisingly Simple Way to Remove Microplastics From Drinking Water by David Nield
March 26, 2025
Introduction:
(Science Alert) Tiny fragments of microplastics are making their way deep inside our bodies in concerning quantities, significantly through our food and drink.
In 2024, scientists found a simple and effective means of removing them from water.
A team from Guangzhou Medical University and Jinan University in China ran tests on both soft water and hard tap water (which is richer in minerals).
…
They added in nanoplastics and microplastics before boiling the liquid and then filtering out any precipitates.
In some cases, up to 90 percent of the NMPs were removed by the boiling and filtering process, though the effectiveness varied based on the type of water
(Eurekalert) In a new paper, researchers at North Carolina State University show proof of concept for a system that, in a single cycle, actively removes microplastics from water.
The findings, described in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, hold the potential for advances in cleansing oceans and other bodies of water of tiny plastics that may harm human health and the environment.
“The idea behind this work is: Can we make the cleaning materials in the form of soft particles that self-disperse in water, capture microplastics as they sink, and then return to the surface with the captured microplastic contaminants?” said Orlin Velev, the S. Frank and Doris Culberson Distinguished Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at NC State and corresponding author of the paper.
“We demonstrated how multiple principles can be integrated into a system that works in a single cycle.”
Additional extract:
The microplastic-laden microcleaners that have floated up to the water surface can then be collected by skimming.
One of the biggest difficulties in helping people affected by natural disasters is transporting and providing them with essential resources like safe drinking water. Researchers at Australia's RMIT University and five Chinese institutes have devised a simple and clever contraption that could solve that, by pulling potable water out of thin air.
The team's invention uses a newly developed composite material based on porous, lightweight balsa wood shaped into small cubes; these are installed into a cup with a domed lid, a simple cooling mechanism, and an activation system powered by the Sun.
The spongy material, known as WLG-15, also contains lithium chloride to improve water absorption, and iron oxide nanoparticles that help the sponge's surface layer to absorb sunlight, and turn the absorbed water into vapor. The latter also helps the water release from the material.
An international scientific collaboration has developed a novel nanomaterial to efficiently harvest clean drinking water from water vapor in the air. The nanomaterial can hold more than three times its weight in water and can achieve this far quicker than existing commercial technologies, features that enable its potential in direct applications for producing potable water from the air.
The collaboration is led by the Australian Research Council Center of Excellence for Carbon Science and Innovation (ARC COE-CSI) UNSW Associate Professor Rakesh Joshi and Nobel Laureate Professor Sir Kostya Novoselov. Prof Joshi is based at the School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales (UNSW). Prof Novoselov is based at the National University of Singapore.
