Better Save Some For California

[Minimalist]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/05/08...tail=email

MIT created a solar-powered machine that turns saltwater into drinking water

[vorlon13]

It's great where it will work, but it seems there is quite a constraint on the amount of dissolved salt it can handle. I would suspect non-polar contaminates would be a problem too, and certain kinds of contaminates might foul (ruin) the system.

[Cato]

The solar power is a novel approach; however, the biggest problem with desalination has always been where to put the brine. The potential ecological problems are significant.

[vorlon13]

I'm just extrapolating from the low salinity it can handle, if the effluent is diluted with a small portion of the incoming water, the waste would still be less saline than sea water.

Curiously, the device has potential for domestic US use. Folks with severe salt restriction due to medical conditions who live in rural areas with ion exchange water softeners (that would include me) cannot drink the softened water because of the salinity. This device would work well with the equivalent salinity from 25 to 150 grain hard water for those people. If the output water is cheaper than bottled, and the device is inexpensive, it would be a boon for older folks with fixed incomes and medical problems.

Some people have to use potassium chloride in their softeners, and that stuff is 4X the price of softener salt. The device would be very helpful in those cases, the payoff would be that much faster.

[Minimalist]

It's great where it will work, but it seems there is quite a constraint on the amount of dissolved salt it can handle.  I would suspect non-polar contaminates would be a problem too, and certain kinds of contaminates might foul (ruin) the system.

If the Industrial Revolution has taught us anything it is that once the breakthrough is made improvements come fast and furious.  The spark of creativity is what is hardest.