111–120 of 241 posts
Would it be possible to re-green deserts with this technology? Does anyone know of any studies on using this technology to combat climate change?
For those curious what the 385% refers to > the team’s demonstration device can achieve an overall efficiency of 385 percent in converting the energy of sunlight into the energy of water evaporation. Honestly I still don't know what that means, or how efficiency can be over 100%.
What is this aerogel thing, and this "capillary wick"? Not bad for $100, but I'm more interested in durability, if parts needs to be replaced and maintained, and if yes what is required to make those parts.
> 1.5 gallons of fresh drinking water per hour for every square meter 7 litres per m^2 per hour.
Back of the envelope - say that you could get 7-8 hours of sunlight a day that could destill water. That would mean ~50 liters/day. ~20 Days to get 1m^3. Reverse Osmosis costs approx $0.50/m^3 water, so your payback on a $100 system would be ~200 * 20 Days or 4,000 Days to equal what you could get for spending $100 on buying water from a reverse osmosis system. The objective here isn't large scale economics, but self…
FTA: "Unlike some desalination systems, there is no accumulation of salt or concentrated brines to be disposed of. In a free-floating configuration, any salt that accumulates during the day would simply be carried back out at night through the wicking material and back into the seawater, according to the researchers." The capabilities are freaking interesting, but let's say someone builds a big enough settlement on a…
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The sea is a big place. I could imagine perhaps some very localised effects near the plant, but even this isn't obvious.
> imagine > perhaps > but even this isn't obvious So basically you're admitting you don't know anything about the subject, but you're making a conclusion anyway. It's OK to admit you don't know enough about a subject, and it's OK to not comment or theorize based on no knowledge besides an imagination.
That man's name? Albert Einstein.
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The article directly addresses your point.
It doesn't. Any salt extraction creates brine which must be disposed of somehow.
It's a bit like slingshotting a space probe past venus. Technically to move Venus a bit closer to the sun, but not enough to make a difference.
For those curious what the 385% refers to > the team’s demonstration device can achieve an overall efficiency of 385 percent in converting the energy of sunlight into the energy of water evaporation. Honestly I still don't know what that means, or how efficiency can be over 100%.
The 100% level refers to a system where all energy goes to heating up water in order to evaporate it, and then letting it cool down to condense it. All the energy that was spent to heat up the water, is lost to the environment in the "cooling down" step. If some of the heat is instead recovered during condensation to heat up the next batch of water, then you have >100% efficiency.
FTA: "Unlike some desalination systems, there is no accumulation of salt or concentrated brines to be disposed of. In a free-floating configuration, any salt that accumulates during the day would simply be carried back out at night through the wicking material and back into the seawater, according to the researchers." The capabilities are freaking interesting, but let's say someone builds a big enough settlement on a…