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If a new Canadian startup is successful with its product, it could decarbonize the whole desalination industry, using only energy from the sea to turn seawater into drinking water.
300 million people rely on seawater from a global industry of 21,000 desalination plants, nearly all of which use fossil fuels to complete the energy-intensive process of thermo-desalination, or reverse osmosis—the two methods that can turn seawater into clean water at scale.
The startup Oneka however uses modular machines that attach to the seafloor like buoys and convert the kinetic energy of 3-foot waves into mechanical energy that drives a reverse osmosis and creates 13,000 gallons of drinking water a day with the largest commerically-available module.
It’s expected that if the worst predictions of climate change come to pass, more and more of the world will rely on desalinated water at least some of the year according to data collected by the BBC, and the industry is predicted to grow 9% to a yearly value of $29 billion by 2030.
Wave-Powered Desalination System Produces 13,000 Gallons of Drinking Water a Day From Each Buoy
300 million people rely on seawater from a global industry of 21,000 desalination plants, nearly all of which use fossil fuels
www.goodnewsnetwork.org
