Researchers at MIT have developed a solar-powered electrodialysis system that could "provide 250 million people in India with safe and affordable water," MIT News reports.
Amos Winter, assistant professor at MIT’s the department of mechanical engineering, and PhD candidate Natasha Wright, a researcher in Winter’s GEAR Lab, and fellow of MIT Tata Center for Technology and Design, will be answering questions about their work in a Reddit Ask Me Anything session starting at 4pm EDT today, July 20, 2016.
The team from MIT settled on electrodialysis reversal as the most cost efficient way to treat the brackish groundwater available to smaller cities such as Chellur, to the south west of Hyderabad, India, where they found salinity to be 500 to 2,000 parts per million.
The design will now continue to be developed, with the GEAR Lab team focusing on improvements to the solar power supply, and the aim is to market the system to rural communities in India. “If we can solve that problem, we can potentially provide 250 million people in India who currently drink salty groundwater a safe and affordable source of water,” said Wright.
The joint project between MIT Tata Center, GEAR Lab, and Jain Irrigation, last year won the USAID Desal prize.