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New Nano Desalinization Method

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the favorite-buzzwords dept.

lbmouse writes "The Technology Review is reporting that researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have announced a way to use carbon nano-tube technology to reduce the cost of desalination of ocean water by 75 percent over current methods of reverse osmosis. From the article: 'The technology could potentially provide a solution to water shortages both in the United States, where populations are expected to soar in areas with few freshwater sources, and worldwide, where a lack of clean water is a major cause of disease.' The technology may also lead to new ways of eliminating carbon dioxide emitted from power plants."

5 of 216 comments (clear)

  1. Small pore, more flow ? by karvind · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Does anyone have any idea why the small pores have higher flow rate through them ? My classical fluid dynamics class beats me here. Should be something to do with quantum effects at that scale, but can't guess it. Quantization in electronic states makes sense to me, but don't know what it is doing to 'flow dynamics'.


    Cool work nevertheless. I wish they could do something with silicon nanowires as silicon is the second most abundant element on earth.

  2. Orchid fractals by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I once read something about a class of fractals called >orchids.
    They are the result of monitoring crowd flow dynamics and producing the formulas.

    They too noticed that for a large crowd (concert, football match) crowd flow speed INCREASES with a number of small gates rather than one large gate, hence one by one through the turnstyles actually makes the process quicker.

    This appears to be a similar unintuitive process.

    Anyway, I know it wasn't totally on topic I just thought I would share.

    --
    liqbase :: faster than paper
  3. Huge boon to hydrogen economy? by RingDev · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Think of the other ramifications, one of the huge problems with cracking hydrogen from water is getting pure enough water to start with. If you can cut the cost of desalination significantly, you can reduce the total cost of hydrogen production.

    -Rick

    --
    "Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
  4. I like the other method... by PatTheGreat · · Score: 4, Interesting
    This article raises two thoughts in my wonderful little head.

    1) Why do they bother calling it "reverse osmosis?" From a quick review of high school biology, I have come to realize "reverse osmosis" really means "pumping through a filter."

    2) I saw this other method in Discover that I really liked. Basically, it proposes using deep water and methane to flash-freeze water. All you need to do is to pump methane into water of the right depth, and it instantly freezes into that flammable ice mining rigs love to dig up and play with, without like, refrigerating it. Anyways, as it freezes, all the salt gets pushed out and it floats to the top, so all you have to do is melt the ice and reuse the methane. It appealed to the recycler in me, and it seems to me some tubes and plumbing would be easier than nanotubes, eh?

    --
    Google: "All your data are belong to us."
  5. Water + salt through filter clogs system? by owlstead · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What I never understand with these kind of filters is where the waste ends up. There is quite a lot of salt in the water, so these filters should clog pretty quickly, and just rinsing them every minute does not seem to be very practical. Does anyone know how this works?