Here comes water without salt – startups are placing big bets

Salt water solves the fresh water problem with solar cell technology that uses only sunlight to purify the water. Startups and researchers are now trying to improve the technology for water purification.

As is known, the world needs more fresh water, and a number of countries have long used desalination plants to remove salt from sea water, with the Middle East already leading in the number of such plants. The problem is that it still runs largely on fossil fuels and harms the marine environment when it creates extremely salty wastewater that is pushed back into the sea, CNN writes.

Sunlight is used to purify salt water

So, a number of start-ups and researchers have begun looking at how to modernize the centuries-old technology of solar cells, which use only sunlight to purify water. One such company is Abu Dhabi-based startup Manhat, which was founded in 2019.

The company created an ocean-floating greenhouse structure where sunlight heats up and evaporates the water under the structure — then separates it from the salt crystals left in the ocean — and when the temperature afterward cools, the water condenses into fresh water and collects inside the structure.

Water is created without the use of electricity and without the formation of salt.

“It’s like a natural water cycle,” says the founder. Said Al-Hassan Al-Khazraji.

right in the sea

According to him, solar evaporation has long been used for this purpose, but it usually involves water in a basin where the salt is left behind after the water evaporates. Now, the device instead floats directly into the sea and draws water directly from there.

This technology can benefit arid coastal regions where the land is already intensively cultivated, which can use the new water for irrigation. A pilot project will start next year involving vegetable cultivation.

“We have to accept the fact that seawater should play a major role in providing fresh water,” says Saeed Al-Hassan Al-Khazraji, adding:

“But we have to have a solution that reduces CO2 emissions and completely removes salt.”

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