The World Congress on Desalination and Water Reuse met in Dubai last November. One of the most promising innovations showcased there is called Thermo-Ionic™ desalination, invented by the principals at Saltworks Technologies in Vancouver.
The advantage of the system is that it requires far less energy to remove salt from water than other desalinating methods like reverse-osmosis or heating-evaporating-condensing.
The Thermo-ionic process uses energy produced by low-temperature heat and dryness in the ambient atmosphere to separate the positively charged sodium ions from the negatively charged chloride ions in salt to produce a pure-water stream. It actually works best in arid desert areas -- right where water is most needed.
-- Doug Logan
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