[HN Gopher] Nanofiber membrane makes seawater drinkable in minutes ___________________________________________________________________ Nanofiber membrane makes seawater drinkable in minutes Author : starkd Score : 67 points Date : 2021-07-10 16:09 UTC (6 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.inceptivemind.com) (TXT) w3m dump (www.inceptivemind.com) | scott_paul wrote: | Article is gibberish. Link to the actual study: | https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S03767... | nayuki wrote: | > They used a new nanofiber membrane distillation process that | could desalinate water with 99.99% efficiency. | | The article doesn't say much about the process, but it seems like | membrane distillation does involve water vapor in some way: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Membrane_distillation | | > Unfortunately, reverse osmosis uses a tremendous amount of | energy, and in the process of desalting water in this way, | harmful waste is generated, which is usually discharged back into | the sea or ocean. | | I believe every desalination process, including this one, | inherently needs to discharge salty wastewater back to the ocean. | thisrod wrote: | Every desalination process uses a lot of energy, too! However | fancy a membrane they're using, they need to force the salt | water through it, and push hard enough to beat the osmotic | pressure. | | This is a reversible process, as you can get the energy back by | using the osmotic pressure to drive a piston. A desalination | process that used a lot less energy would let you build a | perpetual motion machine, and is seriously against the laws of | physics. | awestroke wrote: | Looking forward to reading about the effects of strands of these | nano fibers ending up in the environment and in our cells | fredfoobar wrote: | It's not a consumer product, you can achieve 100% recycling by | defining a process for it. | jvanderbot wrote: | If you don't make laws about it, I'm skeptical anyone would | recycle unless theres a magic rare occasion where it's | abaolutely necessary to keep profitable. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2021-07-10 23:00 UTC)