WEB DESK, June 20(ABC): The device, which is about the size of a suitcase, needs less power to operate than a cell phone charger. It can also be driven by a small, portable solar panel, which can be purchased online for around $50. It automatically generates drinking water that exceeds World Health Organization (WHO) quality standards. The technology is packaged into a user-friendly device that runs with the push of a single button.
Unlike other portable desalination devices that require water to pass through filters, this unit utilizes electrical power to remove particles from drinking water. Eliminating the need for replacement filters significantly reduces the long-term maintenance requirements.
This could enable the unit to be deployed in remote and severely resource-limited areas, such as communities on small islands or aboard seafaring cargo ships. It could also be used to aid refugees fleeing natural disasters or by soldiers carrying out long-term military operations.
“This is really the culmination of a 10-year journey that I and my group have been on. We worked for years on the physics behind individual desalination processes, but pushing all those advances into a box, building a system, and demonstrating it in the ocean, that was a really meaningful and rewarding experience for me,” says senior author Jongyoon Han, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science and of biological engineering, and a member of the Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE).
