Rochester laser panels turn ocean water into fresh water with no brine waste
A solar-thermal desalination system built at the University of Rochester produces fresh water without chemical additives and without leaving behind brine, the concentrated saltwater byproduct that harms marine life when returned to the sea. The panels are made of black metal etched by femtosecond lasers, making their surface super light-absorbing and superwicking. A thin film of water is drawn across the active region, nearly all solar radiation is absorbed, and leftover salts are channelled away to a passive zone so they never clog the system. "Other researchers have developed solar-thermal desalination techniques," said Chunlei Guo, professor of optics and physics at URochester, implying existing approaches still leave problems his team's method avoids. The findings were published in Light: Science & Applications.
Communities in water-scarce regions could gain a clean, waste-free source of drinking water without harming nearby ocean ecosystems.
Source: New method turns ocean water into drinking water, without waste (rochester.edu).
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