Sunday, March 17, 2013

Clean Water

It appears that Lockheed Martin has made a breakthrough.
Cheap, clean water may soon be available for the whole planet. According to Reuters, defense contractor Lockheed Martin has developed a filter that will hugely reduce the amount of energy necessary to turn sea water into fresh water. The filter, which is five hundred times thinner then others currently available, lets water pass through but blocks all salt molecules. It will use almost 100 times less energy than other methods for making salt water drinkable, giving third world countries another way of expanding access to drinking water without having to create costly pumping stations.
That's good news that might have tremendous applications in large cities close to the ocean, or in the oil and gas industry, or in third-world countries that might have a problem with obtaining inexpensive drinking water.
As the article points out, this impressive tech is coming just in time:
This sort of technology always comes "just in time".  Humans find a way to solve problems, but if we don't see a problem, we have a hard time solving it.  That's our nature.  Still, an easier, cheaper, more accesible way to make potable water can only improve the human condition.  Water is our most basic necessity.

3 comments:

Old NFO said...

That it is, and this WILL be one of those things that truly helps!

Gerry N. said...

I would not bet any money against the Greenies finding a way to put a atop to it.

Gerry N.

Rivrdog said...

Yeah. S.O.D.I.S. was supposed to do the same thing, and hasn't. engineering is fine, but you have to be smart enough to use the products of the engineers' brains.