An estimated two-thirds of the world’s population suffers from water scarcity, and many regions in the developing world also lack access to consistent energy. Therefore, there has been an extensive exploration into the possibility of desalinating saltwater or brackish water using only the heat of the sun. However, many such projects have fallen into issues with equipment fouling due to salt build-up, which often adds complexity and price.
Unsafe water sources will be a big problem in the next decades. It’s important to make every effort to generate clean drinking water where it’s required since, like energy, it’s a scarce resource.
One billion people worldwide do not have access to clean drinking water, says the World Health Organisation. One in every seven people!
Most people who don’t have access to clean water live in rural areas, and they’re concentrated in the southern part of the world.
Due to the low population density and isolation of these regions, conventional methods of providing residents with potable water would be prohibitively expensive.
Why is water desalination a good idea?
In contrast to the 97% of salt water, there is only 3% of freshwater on the planet, and even that is quickly running out. Two-thirds of the world’s freshwater is locked away as snow and ice in glaciers and ice caps.
A precious and scarce resource, only 1% of Earth’s water is fresh and usable as water.
In areas where freshwater is scarce but saltwater is plentiful, tapping into the enormous store of 97% salty water makes sense. Large swaths of the Middle East and Africa have an abundance of solar energy and other forms of renewable energy. The sun is one of the most accessible renewable energy sources, so why not harness its power to help alleviate the world’s freshwater crisis?
In contrast to the 97% of salt water, there is only 3% of freshwater on the planet, and even that is quickly running out. Two-thirds of the world’s freshwater is locked away as snow and ice in glaciers and ice caps.
A precious and scarce resource, only 1% of Earth’s water is fresh and usable as water.
In areas where freshwater is scarce but saltwater is plentiful, tapping into the enormous store of 97% salty water makes sense. Large swaths of the Middle East and Africa have an abundance of solar energy and other forms of renewable energy. The sun is one of the most accessible renewable energy sources, so why not harness its power to help alleviate the world’s freshwater crisis?
Desalination’s potential to alleviate water scarcity is limited by two factors: it requires a lot of energy and the produced brine must be disposed of securely. Worldwide, scientists are investigating the feasibility of harnessing solar energy in the form of photovoltaic (PV) systems to generate electricity and solar-thermal technology to power desalination processes.
Why power desalination with solar energy?
- To begin, cutting costs and lowering carbon emissions
- There are around 300 million people who disinfect their drinking water by boiling it. A must, yet their use of diesel-powered generators results in millions of tonnes of annual CO2 emissions.
- Transporting water in bottles by truck to outlying areas is both expensive and wasteful, as it increases the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere.
Water desalination devices powered by the sun give homeowners freedom from utility or water company price hikes.
When compared to reverse osmosis, the most cutting-edge and widely used desalination technology, solar-thermal technologies have the benefit of being able to manage high salinities, possibly even concentrated brine from other desalination processes. Developing a straightforward, low-cost solar thermal system would widen the availability of desalination.
The conservation of present resources is necessary to continue the survival of humankind. We humans currently use 1.6 earths to maintain the current way of living and before we realise, we would have depleted the natural resource. We may not feel the effect now but is this the future we build for our children? Can Science help us with Ecosystem Restoration? Is something many wonders and for good reason.
A child’s insatiable curiosity can produce wonders; all we need to do is guide it in the correct direction. Your child can broaden their knowledge with the aid of Xperimentor science kits, which provide a home laboratory for scientific study. We want to open up science to everyone. Our hybrid science learning ecosystem serves as the Swiss Army Knife of efficient learning in this regard. With a tonne of entertaining science experiments, activities, and projects, it helps your child study at their speed while building solid core knowledge. We think that a new generation of scientists and inventors may emerge from the hands-on learning provided by our science experiment kits. It makes sense why kids adore it and why educators in all schools support it.
