New Desalination Technology on the Horizon

[DenverSailors]

Article about a new desalination technology intended for large-scale use sure to be scaled for blue water sailors? Anyone familiar with this? Thoughts? Thank you kindly.

Graphene-based sieve turns seawater into drinking water - BBC News

[KISS]

Sounds promising but I suspect $$$$

[hafa]

Technologies at the scientific research stage are what we refer to as "vaporware" in the tech community; they may or may not ever make it to the consumer.

Even if this technology should prove to be viable, the primary challenges of R/O will remain; the best case scenario would likely be slightly reduced pressure requirements. You'll still need to backflush and replace the membrane on a semi-regular basis.

[zboss]

Originally Posted by hafa

Technologies at the scientific research stage are what we refer to as "vaporware" in the tech community; they may or may not ever make it to the consumer.

Even if this technology should prove to be viable, the primary challenges of R/O will remain; the best case scenario would likely be slightly reduced pressure requirements. You'll still need to backflush and replace the membrane on a semi-regular basis.

I'm not sure why everyone thinks technology is vaporware yet they are surrounded by it and utilize it everyday.

This technology is closer to pouring water through a t-shirt. As another thread pointed out - its a sieve similar to a colander. Really no different than the funnel you use to remove water from your fuel when you full up. Do you maintain your fuel fill filter? Not really.. and if it breaks you go buy another one at west marine for $20.

But... as you point out making graphene is expensive and this is only economically viable if its cheaper than a standard watermaker.

[Corvidae]

Originally Posted by zboss

I'm not sure why everyone thinks technology is vaporware yet they are surrounded by it and utilize it everyday.

Because there is almost always a years to decades long delay between 'Look at this cool new tech' articles, and actually being able to buy the tech in a store. Especially anything to do with materials science. Articles about new materials are more entertainment than informative, because the path from 'novel lab experiment' to 'possibly an economical product' is nearly as difficult as finding a new material in the first place.

[JstaRebel]

Nice article. Much better than the first paper I read about Graphene. New SWRO Membrane technology is what everybody is looking at. They have tried incorporating nano technology using anion based nano particles and incorporating them into the membrane structure. This technique even went as far as a pilot test in Long Beach, Ca before being scraped. The membranes did in fact reduce the driving force needed to perform, but they were very prone to fouling and did not work well with chemical sequestering agents used to prevent membrane fouling. Membrane construction was also an issue and mechanical failure of the membrane was an issue. These are the same issues that every new material used in desalination will have to overcome before they will even start to become accepted methods for desalination. Until then, we all wait and see. My money is on Dow coming up with the next membrane breakthrough. They are the ones that came up with the polyamide membrane that is exclusively used today that made the acitate membranes obsolete. Graphene is years away from a pilot even.