Low energy watermaker on the horizon?

[thursday]

https://news.mit.edu/2022/portable-d...ing-water-0428

I'm not sure how close this is to being commercialized or how much water it can make in an hour, but the lower power aspect seems compelling. Probably means it's not loud either.

[Caleb_Grey]

Their prototype generates drinking water at a rate of 0.3 liters per hour, and requires only 20 watts of power per liter.

At those rates it would have to constantly run, and still make less than 2 gallons a day.

[Ween]

aren't watts a power unit, not an energy unit? What does "20 watts of power per liter" mean? Does this mean the 0.3 l/hr prototype runs at 7 watts? Thus 20 wH per liter?

and this is an MIT news office article? must be staffed from a local liberal arts university

PS edit: never mind seems like a common mistake. Spectra also states specs in wrong units. their Ventura 150 runs at, and I quote: 4.5 Watts/1 liter

so they convert 12v at 9 amps creates 6.3 gallons per hour, they throw away the "per time period" factor and equate this to 108 watts per 6.3 gallons or 4.5 watts per liter

I guess math is hard

PPS: not low power

[thursday]

Originally Posted by Ween

PPS: not low power

Thanks for looking into it more, I know very little about electricity. I guess this is a PR article and is as good as that, unfortunately. Oh well, maybe it's a good starting point for future development.

[JC Reefer]

Very interesting read. Thanks for sharing. They definitely need to up the production rate.

That being said, so what if it’s running constantly? Low speed pump, low pressure system. It sounds like cheap parts that won’t be stressed.

Fish tank pumps run 24/7.

[seandepagnier]

This one seems more interesting to me:
https://news.mit.edu/2020/passive-so...alination-0207

less power, and no expensive materials.

[Captain Bill]

I assume they meant 20 watt hours per liter. That means the equivalent to my 120l/hour watermaker would consume 2400 watt hours to make 120 liters. Oddly enough my terribly inefficient 120v unit consumes only 1800 watt hours to make 120 liters(15 watt hours/liter). My old 12v unit consumed only 234 watt hours to make 25 liters per hour or only 9.36 watt hours per liter and I could run it off solar. This is an improvement?

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by Captain Bill

I assume they meant 20 watt hours per liter. That means the equivalent to my 120l/hour watermaker would consume 2400 watt hours to make 120 liters. Oddly enough my terribly inefficient 120v unit consumes only 1800 watt hours to make 120 liters(15 watt hours/liter). My old 12v unit consumed only 234 watt hours to make 25 liters per hour or only 9.36 watt hours per liter and I could run it off solar. This is an improvement?

That’s why I said they need to improve things drastically to challenge the energy recovery units.

[sailorboy1]

What ever happened with the carbon nanotube watermaker? That was years ago now.

A cheap low cost to build and run watermaking system would be world changing!

[ozzieKochie]

https://techxplore.com/news/2022-04-...daily-nwletter

[Sonny36]

A godsend to ocean & coastal mariners, altho its capacity needs expansion.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/mit-en...drinking-water

[HeywoodJ]

Quite interesting, another article linked by ozzieKochie (https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ml#post3615354) says “20 watts per liter”. Presuming they mean 20 Wh/liter, the Spectra runs about 14Wh/gallon, or about one sixth the energy requirement. The boffins have some work in front of them cutting the energy input if this will be anything other than a scientific curiosity.

[JC Reefer]

Originally Posted by seandepagnier

This one seems more interesting to me:

https://news.mit.edu/2020/passive-so...alination-0207



less power, and no expensive materials.

Your solar option generates 1.5 gallons per hour per square meter of collection area. Energy efficient? Not when that same space can fit a 200 watt panel that would run the pump and other devices.

What’s interesting to me is that it doesn’t require high pressure or a membrane.

[Gadagirl]

"From seawater to drinking water, with the push of a button
Researchers build a portable desalination unit that generates clear, clean drinking water without the need for filters or high-pressure pumps."

https://news.mit.edu/2022/portable-d...ing-water-0428

I came across this and wanted to share. It's still very low volume but the article said they were striving toward increased volumes.

These advances lift my hope for the future

[PippaB]

https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...on-263816.html

https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ed-263855.html