[url=http://www.forbes.com/2009/08/25/desalination-nanoh20-hoek-technology-breakthroughs-water.html]Water Wizardry - Forbes.com[/url] Water Wizardry Jonathan Fahey, 08.26.09, 06:00 AM EDT A nanoparticle sandwich could double the efficiency of energy-hogging desalination membranes. Seventeen billion gallons of sweet, fresh water are produced from salty water every day, enough to slake the thirst of 350 million people. Yet scientists don't really know how it is done. Good thing they at least know how to make the process, which takes lots of energy, better. Article Controls Many desalination plants remove salt by forcing seawater against a membrane that allows fresh water through, but not salt ions. This is called reverse osmosis, and anyone with a set of taste buds can tell that it works. But scientists still haven't been able to model exactly what is going on. "I can make you a membrane that does what you want," says Eric Hoek, a professor at UCLA's Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science. "But I can't give you an equation that describes it." Hey, whatever works. Hoek developed a membrane now in the process of being commercialized by a start-up company called NanoH20 that the company says could double the amount of fresh water produced per day compared with conventional membranes.
