MIT Passive Desalination system could produce freshwater that is cheaper than tap water, scales down to the size of a suitcase.
MIT Passive Desalination system could produce freshwater that is cheaper than tap water, scales down to the size of a suitcase.
A new solar desalination system takes in saltwater and heats it with natural sunlight. The system flushes out accumulated salt, so replacement parts aren’t needed often, meaning the system could potentially produce drinking water that is cheaper than tap water.
According to MIT, this technology works even at small scale, with one the size of a suitcase able to desalinate 6 litres per hour, and only needing to be serviced every few years.
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What will happen to the salt?
Because the device is tilted, saltier water flows out of the device and back into the main salt water reservoir due to having more mass than the less salty water. As long as the main reservoir was regularly flushed with new salt water, it would never become dangerously concentrated to marine life, which is a major advantage.
If scalable… nifty
Sea salt is also a possible source of lithium, so you could possibly mine and filter it for various resources.
Eat it
If you can get it dry enough, there are huge underground salt mines that could be back filled.
But an larger ocean usually has enough currents that it dillutes out well enough to not be a major issue.
It's shot in to space!