Desalination can create millions of gallons of fresh water a day. But it is expensive and there are many environmental concerns.
Category: sustainability – Page 55
New technology helps turn seawater into drinking water
Desalination can offer a relief in probably trillions of dollars of savings for countries even when drought comes.
Water desalination plants could replace expensive chemicals with new carbon cloth electrodes that remove boron from seawater, an important step of turning seawater into safe drinking water.
A study describing the new technology has been published in Nature Water by engineers at the University of Michigan and Rice University.
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$6.9 Billion Solution: Engineers Unveil Cleaner, Cheaper Way to Desalinate Seawater
In seawater, boron exists as electrically neutral boric acid, so it passes through reverse osmosis membranes that typically remove salt by repelling electrically charged atoms and molecules called ions. To get around this problem, desalination plants normally add a base to their treated water, which causes boric acid to become negatively charged. Another stage of reverse osmosis removes the newly charged boron, and the base is neutralized afterward by adding acid. Those extra treatment steps can be costly.
“Our device reduces the chemical and energy demands of seawater desalination, significantly enhancing environmental sustainability and cutting costs by up to 15 percent, or around 20 cents per cubic meter of treated water,” said Weiyi Pan, a postdoctoral researcher at Rice University and a study co-first author.
Pt nano-catalyst with graphene pockets enhances fuel cell durability and efficiency
The manufacturing and deployment of hybrid and electric vehicles is on the rise, contributing to ongoing efforts to decarbonize the transport industry. While cars and smaller vehicles can be powered using lithium batteries, electrifying heavy-duty vehicles, such as trucks and large buses, has so far proved much more challenging.
Fuel cells, devices that generate electricity via chemical reactions, are promising solutions for powering heavy-duty vehicles. Most of the fuel cells employed so far are so-called proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), cells that generate electricity via the reaction of hydrogen and oxygen, conducting protons from their anode to their cathode utilizing a solid polymer membrane.
Despite their potential, many existing fuel cells have limited lifetimes and efficiencies. These limitations have so far hindered their widespread adoption in the manufacturing of electric or hybrid trucks, buses and other heavy-truck vehicles.
‘Internet of nature’ helps researchers explore the web of life
A novel paper led by Dr. Ulrich Brose of the German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and the Friedrich Schiller University Jena is widening the understanding of how species interact within ecosystems via the so-called “Internet of Nature.”
Published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, the paper reveals that species not only exchange matter and energy but also share vital information that influences behavior, interactions, and ecosystem dynamics—revealing previously hidden characteristics of natural ecosystems.
Traditionally, ecological studies have concentrated on material interactions, such as feeding, pollination, and seed dispersal. However, this new paper shines a light on the essential role of information exchange between species.
Plasma-synthesized photothermal material could enable efficient solar-powered water purification
Technology for converting solar energy into thermal energy is ever evolving and has numerous applications. A breakthrough in the laboratory of Professor My Ali El Khakani at Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) has made a significant contribution to the field.
Professor El Khakani specializes in plasma-laser processes for the development of nanostructured materials. He and his team at the Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications Research Center have developed a new photothermal material that converts sunlight into heat with unmatched efficiency. The results of their work were published in the journal Scientific Reports.
For several decades, stoichiometric titanium oxides have been known for their exceptional photocatalytic properties. A sub-stoichiometric form of this material, characterized by a slight deficiency in oxygen atoms, is referred to as “Magnéli phases,” with specific compositions exhibiting distinct properties.