Americans have found a way to never run out of drinking water again
Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are actively working on a portable desalination device capable of efficiently producing drinking water from seawater.
Named ICPWaterTechthe machine, which is currently in prototype form, does not filter salt water: instead, it uses a technique called “Ion concentration polarization” (ICP).
It applies an electric field to the water, which repels both positively and negatively charged particles. This includes salt molecules, but also bacteria and viruses.
As this process is not sufficient to completely remove all salt particles, the researchers supplemented it with an electrodialysis step.
The water that comes out of the machine after these two treatments is not only stripped of its salt, but it is also purified to make it perfectly fit for consumption.
The device consumes only 20 watt hours per liter of desalinated water, which allows it to operate using a simple portable solar panel.
MIT scientists and engineers now plan to improve the performance of their machine and work on a marketable version, which could see the light of day in the years to come