Scientists have developed a filtration system that could significantly improve access to safe drinking water.
According to Tech Briefs, California company Active Membranes has created a new system to desalinate water. The product could help to meet a critical need at a time when insufficient and inequitable access to fresh, drinkable water is a growing global concern.
Desalination of water can be tricky — it tends to be tough to expand, expensive, and labor-intensive. Two of the biggest hurdles are fouling and scaling, which is when salt and other minerals and contaminants build up on filters. Cleaning or replacing those filters can be costly and time-consuming, but Active Membranes may have developed a solution.
They apply an ultra-thin conductive coating to their filtration membranes, allowing them to charge the surface with low-voltage electrical currents. This keeps the salt ions from building up on the membrane and limits how much time and effort is needed to replace filters.
In a recent field test, the Active Membranes system showed a 20 to 30 percent increase in production over traditional systems.
Desalination is trending to become a bigger and bigger need in the coming years. As both global temperatures and sea levels continue to rise, sources of fresh, potable water face threats around the world. Supplies can dry up in extreme heat or become contaminated by floodwaters.
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Active Membranes isn't the only company looking to innovate in this space. Researchers in Australia and the U.S., for example, have made significant strides in using sunlight and residual heat to warm water for the desalination process.
Active Membranes hopes to expand to other parts of California to demonstrate this technology soon, with the goal of scaling it into something that could be applied around the country and the world.
"Our goal is to make desalination cost-effective, less complex, and easier to adopt so that every community, big or small, can afford and sustainably benefit from it," said co-founder and chief executive officer Arian Edalat, per Tech Briefs.
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