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It would be great if a Solar cell or small panel could power it. That could be a life saver in emergency situations.
by zw123456 13y ago
It would be great if a Solar cell or small panel could power it. That could be a life saver in emergency situations.
- stephengillie 13y agoA solar panel can run this. Or, to be more specific, a small (3" x 3") solar panel could charge a 3v battery which could power this device. I have solar-powered holiday lights which operate on 3v, this application would be simply replacing the lights with this chip. I've actually replaced the charging circuit with a TI MSP-430[1], and powered it directly with solar power. [1]a microcontroller similar to Arduino which operates on 3.3v and was intended to cost $4.30 for the entire development kit. http://www.ti.com/msp430 http://www.ti.com/msp430
- dangrossman 13y agoThis thing is producing nanoliters per minute with that power. Sure, you can power this device with a small panel, but you'll die of thirst before it makes enough water to fill one glass.
- stephengillie 13y agoHopefully they optimize the device for v0.2 ;)
- ars 13y agoThe absolute minimum energy you need is 2.2kJ per liter. A 4x4 inch solar cell could do that in about 2 hours. However I suspect that you'll never actually desalinate water for that amount of energy in a portable system. The very best commercial systems manage to do it with about 3 times the energy of the minimum. More common ones are about 10 times the minimum.
- sbierwagen 13y agoThe absolute minimum energy you need is 2.2kJ per liter. Where's that number from? For what process?
- ars 13y agoMixing saline and fresh water releases energy. To "unmix" them you have to supply energy. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osmotic_power http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osmotic_power