A new solar desalination system takes in saltwater and heats it with natural sunlight. The system flushes out accumulated salt, so replacement parts aren’t needed often, meaning the system could potentially produce drinking water that is cheaper than tap water.

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

More details in their paper here

  • merde alorsEnglish
    3•7 months ago

    but why “if”?

    if they’re making this research, why wouldn’t they “scale up to the size of a small suitcase” and get rid of the “if”?

    • @[email protected]English
      15•7 months ago

      That’s just how research works most of the time. The experimental setup required to build a working prototype and prove the initial hypothesis is always going to be larger and more complex than a mass market appliance. If that appliance ever gets built depends on a huge number of factors too. If the process scales as expected, how complex the device is to produce and if a company thinks that it can make money on it. The researchers, meanwhile, are probably more worried about their next grant funding.