Off-grid Indian communities with
salty groundwater could get potable water through a proposed solar technique.
(September 08, 2014) Around the world, there is more salty
groundwater than fresh, drinkable groundwater. For example, 60 percent of India
is underlain by salty water — and much of that area is not served by an
electric grid that could run conventional reverse-osmosis desalination plants.
Now an analysis by MIT
researchers shows that a different desalination technology called
electrodialysis, powered by solar panels, could provide enough clean, palatable
drinking water to supply the needs of a typical village. The study, by MIT
graduate student Natasha Wright and Amos Winter, the Robert N. Noyce Career
Development Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, appears in the
journal Desalination.