All forms of pollution (soil, water, and air) have an impact on the environment. Everyone desires to breath pure air and drink clean water. Various methods of water purification (water purifiers) are used. They can be place specific, energy-consuming, and costly. There is always a quest to find a low cost and mobile water purifier system that can cater to the growing demands of people for pure water. Low-cost solar-powered water purifier is one such innovation. It can convert any source of water (e.g., seawater, rainwater, brackish tap water) into potable water and remove both inorganic contaminants (arsenic, fluoride, heavy metals, etc.) and organic contaminants (pathogenic bacteria). It does not require periodic replacement of filters. In other water purifiers, filters get clogged and become useless. It is developed by researchers at Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. It is easy to construct and given as an open-source design so that anyone interested can download and build it. This open-source solar water purifier can transform water into potable water from any source, for example, sea, river, pond, wells, or even water collected from rain. The low-cost mobile solar-powered water purifier can also provide safe drinking water in areas where the only sources are contaminated with arsenic, fluoride, or sewage. This device works on the principle that impure water is evaporated using solar energy and vapours are condensed to pure water on a cold surface. During the filtering process, bacteria, heavy metals, arsenic, fluoride, and other impurities are removed and pure potable water of the order of 1.5 L from 3 L of impure water can be produced daily.
This story is from the July - September 2020 edition of Energy Future.
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This story is from the July - September 2020 edition of Energy Future.
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