Researchers transform seawater into purified drinking water using sunlight

Researchers have purified salt water into drinkable water using a combination of metal compounds and sunlight, a breakthrough that could hold significant implications for the provision of safe water for millions of people globally, according to Inews.

A team from Monash University in Australia used metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), metal ion compounds that form into a crystalline material, to absorb water, filtering out potentially harmful particles and salt ions.

The generated water exceeded the standards set by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for good quality drinking water. The WHO suggests that drinking water should have a total dissolved solid (TDS) of less than 600 parts per million (ppm), while the team achieved a TDS of under 500 ppm in under half an hour.

As sunlight is the world’s most abundant and renewable energy source, the new desalination process could be more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly than other methods, which are typically energy-intensive (such as thermal evaporation desalination processes) or the chemical-requiring reverse osmosis.

Around 2.2bn people globally do not have access to clean, safe drinking water, meaning they are at higher risk of contracting diseases, including cholera, diarrhoea and typhoid, or exposure to harmful chemicals.

The team had previously experimented with using MOFs to filter out lithium from seawater to meet increasing demand for the material for use in lithium-ion batteries to power electronic devices, according to Inews.