{"id":42419,"date":"2017-07-05T13:29:42","date_gmt":"2017-07-05T13:29:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theaegisalliance.com\/home2\/theaegis\/WP\/?p=42419"},"modified":"2026-09-01T02:19:50","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T09:19:50","slug":"scientists-effectively-use-solar-power-change-salt-water-freshwater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/pt\/2017\/07\/05\/cientistas-efetivamente-usam-energia-solar-mudanca-agua-salgada-agua-doce\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Use Solar Power To Turn Salt Water Into Freshwater \u2014 And Mine Lithium From What Used To Be Toxic Brine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Overhead<\/p>\n

Seventy-one percent of the planet is water, and most of it will wreck a farm, a tap, and a human kidney. Desalination already drinks coal and gas to push seawater through reverse-osmosis membranes. The bill is energy, brine, and a plant that dies when the grid dies. The bet behind this article has not changed since 2017: if sunlight can do the work, the map of who gets drinking water changes.<\/p>\n

It can. The question is no longer whether a lab can turn seawater into a cup. It is whether the cup is cheap enough, clean enough of toxic brine, and small enough to sit where the pipes do not.<\/p>\n

\"Diagram<\/p>\n

Waterloo, MIT, And A Suitcase That Beats The Tap<\/h2>\n

University of Waterloo engineers published a solar evaporator that they reported at about 93 percent efficiency, producing on the order of 20 liters a day from a device that uses sunlight to drive evaporation and collection rather than high-pressure pumps. That is a village-scale number, not a city’s, and it is the point. You do not need a municipal plant to fill a family’s jugs.<\/p>\n

MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics has spent several years on a different architecture: electrodialysis and ion concentration polarization, powered by panels on the box, with no high-pressure pump and no battery pack to die on a cloudy afternoon. A 2023\u20132025 line of MIT designs produced freshwater at costs the team compared to U.S. tap water from a suitcase-sized unit. In October 2024, MIT engineers described a solar-powered system that follows the sun’s intensity so closely it does not need extra batteries at all. The salt ions are pushed out of the stream electrically. Biological gunk that clogs reverse-osmosis membranes has less to grab.<\/p>\n

\"Close-up<\/p>\n

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\"Freshwater