by Carla Andrea Fundarotto
Engineers from the Korean Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology (KICT) have developed a special membrane, made of nanofiber, which allows water to be easily desalinated to make it drinkable.
This particular technique is called electrospinning, and involves a real distillation process capable of desalination of sea water with an efficiency of 99.99%.
To date, the reverse osmosis technique is used to desalinate seawater, which wastes an enormous amount of energy in addition to generating harmful waste that is very often discharged back into the sea.
“The coaxial electrospun nanofibre membrane – explained Yunchul Woo, lead researcher of the study – has a strong potential for the treatment of seawater solutions and is the most serious candidate for large-scale use”.
Worldwide, according to recent estimates, over 785 million people do not have a clean source of drinking water. This is why desalination could be a solution to meet the water needs.
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