ANU's Breakthrough: New Desalination Tech Tackles Global Water Scarcity
Researchers at ANU have made a significant breakthrough in water treatment, demonstrating a lab-scale desalination device capable of handling 36 mL/h with a 2,000 ppm concentration drop using multichannel thermodiffusion. This innovation comes at a critical time, as over a billion people worldwide face water scarcity, highlighting the urgent need for new, scalable, and sustainable water technologies.
The Water-Food-Energy Nexus illustrates the deep interdependence between water resources, food production, and energy generation. Over 70% of global freshwater is used for agriculture, which is under pressure from population growth and climate change. Meanwhile, lithium extraction for electrification consumes vast areas of land and water, further reducing land available for agriculture and worsening water scarcity. Desalination, though used commercially for six decades, meets less than 0.5% of global freshwater needs.
Multichannel thermodiffusion, a desalination method that operates fully in the liquid phase, avoiding evaporation, membranes, or chemical additives, has shown exceptional performance across a wide salinity range, from typical reverse osmosis brine levels to near saturation. It also preserves water instead of losing it to the atmosphere. Soret Technologies Pty Ltd is scaling up this method to modular systems processing over 100 L/h with salinity shifts in brine concentration exceeding 35,000 ppm. An ideal water treatment technology should run on low-cost or free energy, operate in a single liquid phase, use no membranes or chemicals, and be scalable and manufacturable.
The successful demonstration of multichannel thermodiffusion at ANU offers hope for a more sustainable future. This technology, as it continues to be developed and scaled up by Soret Technologies, could play a significant role in addressing global water scarcity issues, especially when considering the interconnected challenges of the Water-Food-Energy Nexus.
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