Researchers at Princeton University, the University of Maryland, and the University of Colorado Boulder have come up with a different approach, however — and it’s one that involves little more than an ultrathin membrane of ordinary wood.
“The purpose of this work [was] to find a better way to produce freshwater using renewable sources and energy,” Jason Ren, a researcher on the project, told Digital Trends.
“Current membrane-based process like reverse osmosis and membrane distillation use polymer materials which are from fossil fuels and hard to recycle.
Recognizing the natural water evaporation capability of trees, we think wood materials hold good potential on this mission.
Therefore, we partnered to develop this wood membrane that may replace polymer membranes and use renewable energy sources such as solar thermal to drive the distillation process to produce fresh water from seawater.”
The team’s approach is a twist on the process of membrane distillation, in which salt water is pumped through a film with narrow pores for filtering out everything except water molecules.
