HOUSTON, June 25 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. team of researchers will further the development and field testing of an innovative desalination technology that uses nanoparticles and sunlight to treat water.
The Department of Energy has awarded 1.7 million dollars to the "nanophotonics-enabled solar membrane distillation (NESMD)" which combines tried-and-true water treatment methods with cutting-edge nanotechnology, the Houston-based Rice University said in a release on Monday.
By adding low-cost, commercially available nanoparticles to a porous membrane, the researchers essentially turn the membrane itself into a one-sided heating element that drives membrane distillation.
The technology is in development at the Rice-based Center for Nanotechnology Enabled Water Treatment (NEWT), a multi-institutional engineering research center funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation.
The NESMD technology is one of 14 projects funded through the DOE Solar Energy Technologies Office's Solar Desalination program.
The oldest method of desalination is boiling brine and capturing the steam, which turns into fresh water after it cools. But boiling large volumes of water takes energy, so much so that energy costs account for the majority of operational expenses for thermal desalination plants.
However, membrane distillation is a lower-energy alternative in which hot brine is flowed across one side of a porous membrane and water vapor is drawn naturally through the membrane to the other side, where the temperature is lower.
"We're creating off-grid systems to provide water anywhere it's needed," said NESMD inventor and NEWT co-director Qilin Li, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Rice.
Her research group is now devoted to finding a solution to sustainable water supply.
