Wetenschapsforum

Nanotechnology Used to Create a "Desalination Battery"


Many places in the world face a shortage of drinkable water, and the situation is getting worse rather than better.


When there's not enough naturally occurring fresh water, various desalination processes become attractive technological solutions. The most recent estimate of desalination prodution that I’ve seen—dating back to 2007—was about 30 billion liters a day.


That number sounds significant, but most of the production is limited to the oil-producing countries of the Persian Gulf that can afford the huge energy costs of running the multi-stage flash (MSF) process. It generally costs $0.5 to $0.85 per cubic meter of water, with 70% of that cost from energy consumption.


Now, German researchers, led by Fabio La Mantia at Center for Electrochemical Sciences at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, have developed what they call a “desalination battery.” (The work was published in the January 23, 2012 online edition Nano Letters “A Desalination Battery”)


...


Lees verder: http://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/semicon...ination-battery


Bron: IEEE Spectrum