MIT builds cheap water treatment device for India

MIT scientists have developed an inexpensive, solar-powered water treatment system for rural India, which lack affordable potable water and electricity. The researchers have designed, built and tested their next step id to implement it in a village outside of Hyderabad.

                They found that thousands of people in the Mhasawad village in Maharashtra regularly drink water with a salinity level above 1,200 parts per million (ppm). The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends levels under 600 ppm. Wright and Winter believe that by designing a community system that can provide tasty, desalinated water at an affordable price, all villagers will be more likely to consistently drink water that is clean and healthy, even if they hav to pay for it.

RO systems, installed in many villages, work by utilizing a high-pressure pump to push water through a membrane; the saltier it is, the more energy that is required to move the water through. The researchers instead chose electrodialysis reversal (EDR), because at the area’s typical salinity level of 500 to 2,000 ppm, it requires 25 to 70% less energy than RO and can recover more than 90% of the feed water.

                They then replaced grid electricity with solar power, decreasing operational and capital costs at the same time