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Is this a breakthrough? Sure. But it's probably not a panacea. * Getting actual salt particles out of flows of water is not what their experiment accomplished
by mchannon 9y ago
Is this a breakthrough? Sure. But it's probably not a panacea.
* Getting actual salt particles out of flows of water is not what their experiment accomplished. They got larger particulates out of the water. The latter is quite easy to do, and the former quite difficult.
* Ionic charge is a very powerful driving force when what you're trying to move has a directionality to it, like a magnet picking up iron filings. This would work great for largely insoluble things like bacteria and mineral particles.
* When salts are dissolved, their constituent parts form ionic dipoles that will work far harder to stay together in solution. A little bit of ionic charge bias presents no challenge to a sodium chloride pair.
* CO2 use in this experiment may be close to zero. After CO2 is injected, it can be recovered and reused (at least in part). Finding a use for the petagrams of CO2 we're dumping in the air is a worthwhile goal but no matter how successful this technology may end up, it won't make a dent.
- erikpukinskis 9y agoCould you just use it on your sewer pipe? That would get us to a sustainable water system pretty fast. Get off the grid: the sewer grid! Drink filtered shitwater, and top it off each week with a gallon of America's Best brand generic Spring Water Plus Shitwater Conditioner. Choose from Mountain Fresh, Country Home, and six other popular flavors! (product may contain less than 1% of flourine, Nestlé brand product flavors, and other mind controlling food stuffs)
- amelius 9y ago> When salts are dissolved, their constituent parts form ionic dipoles that will work far harder to stay together in solution. A little bit of ionic charge bias presents no challenge to a sodium chloride pair. An electric field of a few volts over a small channel seems to split this dipole just fine, [1]. [1] https://cleantechnica.com/2013/06/30/desalination-with-small-electrical-fields-simple-new-method-may-revolutionize-seawater-desalination/ https://cleantechnica.com/2013/06/30/desalination-with-small...
- xyzzyz 9y agoAs of now, the best that the researchers have achieved is 25% desalination 25% is quite far from "just fine". Has there been any progress on the method in last 4 years?
- amelius 9y agoRepeat the process 10 times, and you're at 95% desalination.
- xyzzyz 9y agoIt may or may not work, depending on the details of the process. For instance, the process might only be able to separate the ions if the concentration is high enough. If it's the case, repeating the process on the result will not make any difference.
- T-Winsnes 9y agoDesalinating water is a different problem, with a different solution. Problem this is looking to solve is cleaning up fresh water that is contaminated, which is in itself a large problem in poorer areas.