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Invention from Palo Alto scientist helps efficient water recycling
Breakthrough in efficient water recycling
abc7news.com, Environment, June 11, 2008
Excerpts from the article [video]:
California is officially in a drought with many of us now facing water restrictions. So it may interest you to hear the ideas of a Bay Area scientist who wants to recycle the world's dirty water.
This invention isn't going to magically reverse the drought or give us more water to drink. But it may, at some point, be able to clean and recycle water at a rapid pace for all of us to use.
..."If you are looking at gray water, which is for agriculture or washing your car and stuff like that where you don't need to drink it, then this is sufficient. You can just use this and it will be ready to go," said Meng Lean Ph.D., Palo Alto Research Center.
...This invention came about when Lean was hired by the U.S. Army. His job was to develop a system to purify water for soldiers in the field. From that, this water purification technology emerged inside a Palo Alto lab that's smaller than most college dorm rooms.
"It has a huge potential to change the way water treatment is done throughout the world," said Nitin Parekh, Palo Alto Research Center.
...The big sell here, according to Parekh, is space and money. He says the technology is cheap to make and filters water five times faster than today's system and the spiral disks take up little real estate space compared to water treatment plants.
"Since we are using tax payer money, we are always looking to cut costs anyway we can. So new technology on the market that helps us to do that - we would be very interested in that," said Susan Siravo, Santa Clara Valley Water District.
Lean admits this technology isn't perfect...
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