554

Desalination system could produce freshwater that is cheaper than tap water (news.mit.edu)

submitted 1 year ago by Gsus4@feddit.nl to c/technology@lemmy.world

131 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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 paper appearing today in the journal Joule, the team outlines the design for a new solar desalination system that takes in saltwater and heats it with natural sunlight.

The researchers estimate that if the system is scaled up to the size of a small suitcase, it could produce about 4 to 6 liters of drinking water per hour and last several years before requiring replacement parts. At this scale and performance, the system could produce drinking water at a rate and price that is cheaper than tap water.

https://www.cell.com/joule/fulltext/S2542-4351(23)00360-4

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] Coreidan@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago

“Could”. What kind of fucking title is this?

Either it does or it doesn’t.

[-] key@lemmy.keychat.org 24 points 1 year ago

It's a good title. They don't know if it will be cheaper or not until they go and actually scale it up. Based on the prototype their projections say it should but it's very likely they would run into issues that drive up the cost.

[-] LesserAbe@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

They do say in the article that they haven't scaled it up yet. If a large version works same as the small version it would do it. Hence "could".

this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2023

554 points (100.0% liked)

Technology

60009 readers

1963 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS