Very interesting development, Ann. Providing a more economical way to attack the desalination process could really make a big difference in pushing more of these projects to the fore and help them gain a foothold in developing areas that are really desparate for fresh water sources.
When reading of flash-tube boilers I envisioned tubes heated to several hundred or more degrees, not 70-130. The concept of having water spray and evaporated steam in close proximity without excessive mixing is interesting. I wonder if flash-tube could be economically superior to Reverse Osmosis? Certainly the next 30 or so years will see the need for many more water purification methods.
I've been watching the desal controversy for several years as it's been debated locally. Although it's not the only one, infrastructure cost is definitely one of the problems that must be overcome.
Reverse osmosis and other membrane technologies are the methods I'm more familiar with and have heard mentioned more often, so I was surprised to discover that thermal distillation is the technology used in the majority of installations. Although RO presumably uses somewhat less energy, both processes are quite intensive energy users. Re temperatures, thermal distillation is a form of vacuum distillation, which allows water to boil at a lower than normal temperature due to lower pressure. The Wikipedia article on desal is helpful.
Desalinization isn't a good long term solution. It's been used in Israel for years for crop irrigation. The strawberries in Israel today aren't nearly as delicious or nutritious as they were decades ago. I think the berries are telling us something. Legalizing and building infrastructure to utilize grey water would offer a longer solution for potable water shortages.
This may be easily used for manufacturing and energy creation. Many newer processes seem to involve massive amounts of fresh water.
It would seem that removing the salt and other minerals froom seawater would be the preferred method, not only because of the magnesium recovered, but because sea water is an easy to get resource that we won't be in any danger of running out of. If the berries are different after a few years it is probably because of cost being taken out of the growing process, not because of the water. What quality reduction has been implemented to increase profits?
Of course desalination does need a lot of energy, I don't know any way around that, one other option is for people to not live in that area that has no water. Did anybody ever stop and consider that some places that seem uninhabitable ARE UNINHABITABLE? Even if some developer puts houses there?
REmember the Bob Dylan quote: "One should never be where one does not belong"? It is also appropriate for areas without water.
The problem is that while we can make potable water out of seawater, we can't make the energy to do the process.
Ann, I know in most of the Arab countries, they are distilling the sea water for residential purpose other than drinking. Am not sure about the technology they are using for this purification, but I heard that it's a multi stage purification, where water is evaporating to remove the salt content. In such cases I think the new technology seems to be superior and affordable.
Beth, we know that eventhough 2/3rd of earth is covered by water, most part of the world still have scarcity of drinking/fresh water. So the best option to bridge the gap is purification or desalination of sea water. Most of such projects required huge investment and complex technology/machinery for purifying the salt water. A new more economical and simple technology has yet to be discovered and I think these new technology may comes under that category.
Very interesting article, Ann. Living in the Midwest on the shores of one of the largest bodies of fresh water in the world, I didn't have a lot of background in how desalination is accomplished. Using the method you described, I would assume that they materials being used would have to be rather "slippery" too. If you are spraying salt water on them specifically to cause steam and leave the salt and contaiminate behind, I would think that the pipes would be covered in a relatively short period of time...either that or there is a good method for continual cleaning.
Andrew Morris designed a circuit that could detect a stroke victim's groan and convert the sound into a signal so caregivers would know when help was needed.
New disc magnet motors fit into the design trend of stepping up to closed loop performance while maintaining the cost advantage of stepper motor technology.
At the Design News webinar on June 27, learn all about aluminum extrusion: designing the right shape so it costs the least, is simplest to manufacture, and best fits the application's structural requirements.
On April 21, NASA launched a novel project, putting into orbit three satellites that employ an off-the-shelf commercial smartphone as the control system.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
To save this item to your list of favorite Design News content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
If you found this interesting or useful, please use the links to the services below to share it with other readers. You will need a free account with each service to share an item via that service.
Tweet This
0 
