Home > News > Innovation: Water's Life Saver
December 20th, 2007
Innovation: Water's Life Saver
Abstract:
Nanoscale carbon, for example, is enabling greater efficiency and longer lifetimes for the familiar activated carbon water filter. Such filters are being fielded by start-ups like Seldon Labs and KX Industries. Meanwhile, nanoscale engineering by GE and start-ups like NanoH2O is helping make conventional semi-permeable membranes commonly used for filtration and desalination more efficient, more selective in what they filter and/or less prone to fouling.
Santa Monica, Calif.-based NanoH2O is aiming its membrane technology at the desalination sector, which currently delivers over 1 billion gallons per day, and is expected to more than double by 2015. Desalination removes salt by forcing water against a membrane to remove salts via reverse osmosis. The process requires a lot of energy, and only desalinates about half of the water flowing into the system. "So, the permeability of reverse osmosis membrane is key to improving capacity per unit cost--or on a capex basis," said Jeff Green, CEO of NanoH2O. His company's solution is to incorporate super-hydrophilic (i.e. water-loving) nanoparticles into a reverse osmosis membrane. The result is a membrane surface that favors water molecules, leading to higher throughput and significantly reduced energy costs.
Source:
forbes.com
Bookmark:
| Related News Press |
News and information
Simulating magnetization in a Heisenberg quantum spin chain April 5th, 2024
NRL charters Navy’s quantum inertial navigation path to reduce drift April 5th, 2024
Discovery points path to flash-like memory for storing qubits: Rice find could hasten development of nonvolatile quantum memory April 5th, 2024
Interviews/Book Reviews/Essays/Reports/Podcasts/Journals/White papers/Posters
Simulating magnetization in a Heisenberg quantum spin chain April 5th, 2024
Discovery points path to flash-like memory for storing qubits: Rice find could hasten development of nonvolatile quantum memory April 5th, 2024
Water
Taking salt out of the water equation October 7th, 2022
 |
||
 |
||
| The latest news from around the world, FREE | ||
 |
||
|
|
||
| Premium Products | ||
 |
||
|
Only the news you want to read!
Learn More |
||
 |
||
|
Full-service, expert consulting
Learn More |
||
|
|
||