Tuesday 14 May 2013

Potential For Massively Improved Reverse Osmosis

The world needs potable water. One source is sea water desalinated using reverse osmosis. The downside of doing this is the energy intensity of current systems. Now Lockhead Martin has announced a patent of a material they call Perforene (essentially graphene) which they claim allows water flow at 100 times better than current reverse osmosis systems. Their announcement doesn't spell out what "100 times better" actually means but I have seen it interpreted as requiring a 100 times lower pressure differential. I have to say I'm a little sceptical about that, but I hope I can be convinced. It would be some breakthrough if this material really does perform in this way and industrial size application become viable.

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