Solar-Powered Desalination System for Off-Grid Water Production in India and Gaza

$15,000 Lemelson-MIT “Eat it!” Graduate Winner
Natasha Wright’s interest in design engineering began early. She helped her father rewire a toaster and built a large exercise gym for her hamster as a grade-schooler in Wayzata, Minn. She recalls that as she left for school each day, her parents reminded her to “work hard and play hard,” then waited for her to reply with a self-reminder: “And don’t forget to ask good questions.”
Natasha has been asking questions ever since, particularly about water quality. Much of her research and inventive work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has focused on improving drinking-water quality and better understanding household water-usage habits in rural India and other areas. She travels to India three times each year to learn more about local water supplies and to complete field trials of her technology.

[@mcmonee]

Is there a link to a publication paper? Particularly for electrodialysis?

[@yuvaraajdhandapany5054]

Can you extend this to large scale SWRO desalination plant?if so, what would be the requirement of solar panels, the land ,recovery of product water , capex &opex cost per 1kl etc? yuvaraaj

[@mfjtf]

What is the status of this technology now almost 3 years later? Is it somewhere fully operational?

[@tommartens3731]

So what is the cost comparison between electrodialysis and reverse osmosis? How much does the ED cost?

[@voluntarycke]

Kindly help a remote village in Kenya get solar power. Blessings

[@eddybrevet6816]

Utilize the high pressure from the depth of the sea itself, in the process of reverse osmosis

[@BennyTadeo]

I like how she takles about the subject.

[@engineer850]

What is the max TDS for your system....and KW /cubic meter off water and finally the cost

[@LAPGOCHINSTRUCTOR]

Surely any TDS issues can be catered for with a pre filtering process before treatment

[@LAPGOCHINSTRUCTOR]

No mention of boiling the water and using evaporation process to desalinate the water and then use standard filter/purification systems

[@richardowens9061]

That is because the energy requirements for that type of system are prohibitively high for a large scale community based water production facility. The method she describes is far more energy efficient and produces a lot more fresh water. There are lots of ways to distill water - but, doing it large scale and in an energy efficient manner that meets the demand is the real challenge. If you only need a small amount of fresh water each day for your own personal use, the energy inefficiency and low output are not prohibitive.

[@manit77]

Richard Owens right now the most efficient way is RO. If we ever solve fusion energy then distilling will be available on a large scale but nano materials as filters sounds promising.

[@LAPGOCHINSTRUCTOR]

@@manit77 You can never call an RO system efficient - the water waste and energy used means it's very inefficient. This is why they usually collocate a power station next to a large RO system and then have long pipes from the RO system back into the sea to better distribute the waste water and brine concentrate. It seems however that RO is still used regardless of waste and energy use until something better is developed.

[@mykevenable8180]

Turn the Job into Joy so that it is all play !!

[@maxandersen6532]

Good presentation.

[@manit77]

Max Andersen I applauded her but no new revelations in her research.

[@setback4908]

Vaccum desalination also seems very reasonable.

[@tomkelly8827]

I prefer my vacuum to remain salty!

[@rachelsmith8696]

0'56 seg recipment water for consum human

[@alokekumarmandal7563]

Khardah Shibnath High School wanyi a solar system for School what can i do

[@hawkeye-vv4kb]

The first question sort of killed the technology, because desalination nowadays implies the recovery of pure water from sea water.

[@xzaec]

am interested here in kenya

[@shantelleadeline6053]

Go to Avasva eco blog and learn how to do it.

[@xaviercsc]

Not sure after a while Solar panels and Batteries filling up space will eventually create additional environmental problems....

[@miketiong8441]

I can .... ; my system ....; most system design are team efforts & not by just one person..... something is not right here

[@edwardliquorish8540]

The goal is drinking water from any water or atmosphere source, using natural processes. No money in it, but keep it simple. Imagine free water.