Hey Readers,
We have a few interesting innovations in light of COP26 announcements, as well as a mixed bag of news, so let’s get into it.
Coal to be used for cleaning water?
With most countries weaning off coal, that industry must be wondering what to do with themselves. Not to worry, the fine minds at KAUST university in Saudi Arabia have a plan. They have used compressed blocks of pulverized coal as the basis of sunlight-powered off-grid water purification. How? - They start with blocks of carbonized compressed powder (CCP), a microporous material produced by forcing powdered coal together under pressure. To assist water flow into and through the CCP, the team incorporated cotton fibers through the material.
They placed a block of this material over a saltwater-filled container so that the cotton fibers touched the water. When the CCP was warmed by sunlight, water was drawn up through the device and evaporated from its hot surface. A condenser over the device captured the freshwater. The salt left behind in the CCP can be washed off with seawater. The researchers are working with a commercial partner, Netherlands-based PERA, to develop the device toward commercialization.
Hollow-fiber nanofiltration membranes (HFNM) to reduce power needs in RO purification
We have talked in the past about the drawbacks of reverse osmosis (RO) purification processes, ranging from the power needed to pump the water and the waste due to the washing process on RO membranes. Now a private company has licensed technology from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) that uses membranes made of hollow-tube nanofibers. The benefits of this technology is that it can be ion selective at a nanoscale, which means that it can remove impurities while retaining minerals which doesn’t happen with RO filtration. By operating at a lower pressure and having a higher flux rate than traditional filtration membranes, this setup is touted to have 70% less operating cost, and wastes only a third of the water wasted in most current RO processes.
Other Innovations we Heard About
While these next few innovations are not new, the problem they are tackling isn’t either and they do a good job of it.
Seabins to remove trash at the docks
We have written in the past about the great garbage patch and efforts to clean that up. However anyone who lives near the sea will tell you that the water is filthiest near the docks and marinas where all manner of trash collects. The Seabin is a solution for the same - it is a “trash skimmer” designed to be installed in the water of Marinas, Yacht Clubs, Ports and any water body with a calm environment. It collects floating debris, macro and micro plastics, contaminated organic material (leaves, seaweed, etc.). It is also equipped with oil absorbent pads able to absorb petroleum-based surface oils and detergent.
Polyglu to remove dirt and other flocculants from water
A Japanese company came up with a polymerized powder made from fermented soya beans that can coagulate impurities in a body of water and remove them. The key ingredient of the powder is a polymer of the amino acid glutamic acid. One gram of the powder can treat up to 5L of polluted water, and has been successfully used in India, Somalia, Bangladesh and Tanzania. How does it work? - Add the powder to the polluted water, shake it up, and watch it work!
In Other News
First up is this story from Oregon where the government entities will not share how much of the state’s freshwater will be diverted/used to cool the giant data centers in the state. Obviously Google, Paypal etc. are big revenue earners for the state and not to be dismissed out of hand, but the fact that this question is getting asked at all, speaks to the changing priorities around water access and use.
Another not-so-good story is that climate change is causing all kinds of chemicals and heavy metals to leach down from the mountains into the glacier melt and subsequently into the ground and freshwater bodies. Like the rising sea levels weren’t enough!
COP26 had a lot of things being discussed and shared, perhaps one of the most poignant was this speech from a Samoan climate activist who pointed out that the latest IPCC report meant there was “about a decade” until islands, notably Tuvalu followed by Samoa, are under water. What’s worse is that they are not the only ones…
Another sad story this week is that Turkey-backed groups have been building dams across water sources to further starve Kurdish communities downstream in Syria. Research conducted by Dutch peace-building organization PAX shows that the Syrian National Army (SNA) built three dams that cut off the vital Khabour river a 320-kilometer-long tributary of the Euphrates whose source is in Turkey but runs across much of northeastern Syria.
In a damning indictment of the EPA, nonprofit environmental group EWG has released a detailed Tap Water Database showing the contaminants in our water bodies by state and zip code. Time to take action for ourselves, so you can find there extremely helpful tip sheet here, and if you are in the NY city area, here is a quick look at the 18 contaminants in our tap water as well as ways to mitigate the same.
We wrote last week about Alphabet putting their solution around atmospheric water generation out there for the world to use, because they didn't see a way to make it 10 times more efficient. Right on the heels of that is this announcement from Source, who are easily the standard bearer in this space, saying they are already 4 times as efficient as the open sourced idea, so more or less halfway to the goal with practical deployment experience to boot!
That is it for this week folks,
‘Til next Friday, Peace