MIT engineers and collaborators developed a solar-powered device that avoids the salt-clogging issues of other designs. Engineers at MIT and in China are aiming to turn seawater into drinking water with a completely passive device that is inspired by the ocean, and powered by the sun. In a pap
The main problem I always hear with this is “where does the brine go?”
It can’t easily be dumped without causing ecological chaos. In the water it can kill ocean life. On land it can make plant life never grow again in certain areas, also leeching into groundwater.
I love this technology buy am apprehensive about its deployment.
Put it in empty oil tankers and have them disperse it through the ocean. Might have to retrofit them to put a port that leads to the ocean but besides that should be pretty cheap. No reason that empty tanker heading back to Saudi Arabia can’t be filled with brine.
That would likely make it much more expensive than tap water, rendering the device almost pointless except in cases where they probably couldn’t afford it anyways.
Not an expert here but the word that comes screaming into my head seeing that is ‘rust’. Would the brine be easier to deal with solidified into salt? Even edible?.
Like how some places get salt. Put it in a pool and let it evaporate in the sun
I wonder if we could evaporate to extract salt and recover water from the brine once any harmful products are filtered out of the brine
Idk. Sodium batteries? Dump it in the desert?