A team of researchers in Canada has developed a technology that's capable of solving two major problems.
Scientists from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, have developed a cheap and easy way to desalinate saltwater using old tires, as TechXplore shared.
The floating solar still can desalinate water and produce a small amount of electricity. The technology centers around refractory plasmonic materials, which can turn light into heat. Generally, precious metals like gold or silver are used, but those aren't widely available in developing countries that could really use this technology.
The team used a process of thermal decomposition of carbon waste at high temperatures without access to oxygen, a process known as pyrolysis. The remnants can be used as a replacement for the precious metals, and the team found that used tires performed the best.
The desalination process involves a wicking system that brings ocean water to the surface of the device where the water is evaporated using heat from the plasmonic materials that include the charred remnants of the tires. The salt is left behind, and the clean water gathers on a clear plastic dome, where it is then funneled and collected.
When the team tested the device in Halifax Harbor, it produced yields of clean water of up to 3.67 liters at a cost of less than one cent per liter.
"Maximizing the use of sunlight means our plasmic solar still can generate large amounts of water while maintaining a simple design," said Dr. Matthew Mageson, one of the authors of the study. "It's exciting to showcase the effectiveness of the still on a real-world scale and prove that this type of device has the potential to bring freshwater to places that desperately need it."
According to Unicef, four billion people experience water scarcity for at least one month each year, and over two billion live in countries where there's not an adequate water supply.
Hundreds of millions lack access to clean water on a daily basis, and it's only going to get worse as the planet continues to get hotter.
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Meanwhile, in the US alone, roughly 280 million tires are discarded each year, according to a report by the Federal Highway Administration. Only about 8% are recycled into new products, while a staggering 40% are used as tire-derived fuel, which generally involves burning and releases toxic air pollution into the atmosphere.
That's why this technology is so promising. Researchers plan to conduct further testing in South Asia in the summer of 2025.
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