MIT engineers and collaborators developed a solar-powered device that avoids salt-clogging issues of other designs.

  • AlteredStateBlob@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    I am not ignoring that, it is also vastly more contaminated than fresh water with microplastics and all the other grabage shipping companies and countries have been dumping into it for the better part of a century now.

    I’m not saying it is impossible to do or not a potentially sensible option in certain places, I am saying it is not going to be cheaper than tap water anywhere.

    • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      This system uses a variant of distillation to desalination the water. This means that a good part of the filtration and purification process required to make most fresh water potable would no longer be necessary, so it could be cheaper than regular tap water, especially in places where the starting water just isn’t that great to begin with. It also is solar powered and looks like it could be pretty scalable, so it may be a viable option.

    • FooBarrington@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      I’m not saying it is impossible to do or not a potentially sensible option in certain places, I am saying it is not going to be cheaper than tap water anywhere.

      How does this work? If it’s a sensible option in certain places (those without access to tap water), how can tap water be cheaper? Why wouldn’t everybody just bring tap water to those places as well if it was cheaper?

      • AlteredStateBlob@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        It might still be more expensive but more resilient to other external factors such as embargoes, wars, whatever might influence delivery of other water sources. Cost isn’t the only factor to decide what technology or solution should be implemented.