Hydrophilic disc uses solar power to separate salt from water

“This device can produce six to eight liters (1.6 to 2.1 gal) of clean water per square meter (of surface area) per day”<p>That’s really bad from a density standpoint. You’re talking ~8,000 gallons per day per acre of land. Solar powered reverse osmosis is something like 1&#x2F;500th the space.<p>If the can get installed costs below 1$ per square meter it might be interesting, but even just land costs are likely to be an issue.

One cool thing about this is that it looks inexpensive and simple, as well as functional. If a square meter can generate enough clean water for a person per day, islands of it could support entire cities.

Reminds me of dye chromotography, I wonder if you can get different salts to turn up at different places on the edge? Might be able to get useful concentrations of lithium out of it that way.

This doesn&#x27;t make for a good drinking water, this creates distilled water that would drain your body of minerals if you drank it.<p>You now need to expend energy to gather those minerals from somewhere else and then put them in the water. Is the energy spent gathering those minerals more than other desalination processes?

Do I understand it correctly that this doesn&#x27;t actually produce liquid water but only somewhat more humid air in the general area above the device? I wonder how much additional effort it takes to actually get the water into a container.

Hydrophilic anything in the environment quickly fouls to hydrophobic.

<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Solar_still" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Solar_still</a><p>is a lower tech solar solution?