Finding a way to make the desalination of ocean water efficient enough so it can be broadly useful is something of a holy grail in the scientific community. And now, researchers from the University of South Australia and China have said they've made a breakthrough that has the potential to make desalination cheap and efficient.
Typically, converting seawater into freshwater requires enormous amounts of energy. But, according to a study published in Advanced Materials, scientists figured out a new trick.
When they add commonly found clay minerals into a particular desalination process that uses solar energy, a molecular conversion causes seawater to evaporate much faster than pure water. The minerals act as evaporation boosters.
Efficiently and cleanly turning saltwater to pure water would be a massive boon to worldwide freshwater supplies, which would benefit billions of people.
According to UNICEF, 4 billion people each year endure at least one month of extreme water scarcity. And half the world's population may suffer from a lack of water security and availability within the next year.
Desalination can be a major step toward alleviating that disaster.
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It's not perfect, however. Desalination plants produce a toxic brine that is highly saline and can contain harmful chemicals. They also typically use dirty energy sources to produce energy, making them a serious source of carbon pollution.
But the amounts of freshwater they can produce make them an attractive option in a world of declining access to clean water supplies.
This new desalination process has huge potential but still needs to be tested to figure out how to make it work at scale. Only then can it become a practical solution to the desalination dilemma.
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"This new strategy, which could be easily integrated into existing evaporation-based desalination systems," said professor Haolan Xu of the University of South Australia, "will provide additional access to massive amounts of clean water, benefitting billions of people worldwide."
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