New technology could be a game-changer for the future of drinking water.
A team at The University of Manchester has developed a new graphene ‘sieve’ that can take the salt out of sea water.
It has several useful characteristics, like unusual strength and permeability.
A team led by Professor Rahul Nair, however, has developed a chemical form of graphene, graphene oxide, that can be produced comparatively cheaply in the lab.
This has previously been challenging, because the holes required are extremely small.
Nair is confident that this will make desalination (salt removal) affordable, as it is currently a prohibitively expensive solution to water scarcity.
Changing the future of water supplies This development has potentially revolutionary consequences for the availability of fresh drinking water.
Water resources are under increasing pressure as a result of growing global population, sea level rise, and climate change.
With more people on the planet, the demand for resources like water will inevitably grow.
And technologies like the graphene sieve could be part of the answer.