Chemists have devised a method of using an electrical field that will remove the salt from seawater. This technique requires little more than a store-bought battery. Called electrochemically mediated seawater desalination (EMSD) this technique has improved upon the current water desalination method.
Richard Cooks, chemistry professor at the University of Austin said : “The availability of water for drinking and crop irrigation is one of the most basic requirements for maintaining and improving human health.”
Cooks continued: “Seawater desalination is one way to address this need, but most current methods for desalinating water rely on expensive and easily contaminated membranes. The membrane-free method we’ve developed still needs to be refined and scaled up, but if we can succeed at that, then one day it might be possible to provide fresh water on a massive scale using a simple, even portable, system.”
Kyle Krust, lead author of the study said: “We’ve made comparable performance improvements while developing other applications based on the formation of an ion depletion zone. That suggests that 99 percent desalination is not beyond our reach.”
This “water chip” method “could bring relief to millions around the globe who lack potable water.” This method “is much simpler and consumes less energy than other forms of desalination.”