Solar-powered oven makes fresh water
Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best. Concerned about the lack of fresh water in the developing world, designer Gabriele Diamanti wanted a solution to desalinate water that was available to households rather than relying on giant, centralized plants. He also wanted it to be something inexpensive that could be made by local craftsman. The result is a ceramic solar still called the Eliodomestico that operates like an “upside-down coffee percolator”.
The open-source design of the Eliodomestico is remarkably simple. It consists of two ceramic pieces that sit one atop the other. Inside the top piece is a black container into which salt water is poured. The sun heats the container, turning the water to steam. As pressure builds, the steam is forced down a tube into a container in the lower piece. There it condenses against the lid and collects in the basin of the container.
The Eliodomestico collects about five liters (1.09 gal) of fresh water per day and costs about US$50 to build with no operating costs. The bottom container’s basin is designed to be transported on the head, which is a common practice in developing countries.
The design was a finalist at Prix Emile Hermès competition 201, received special mention at the Well-Tech Award 2012 and was the pro winner of the Core77 Design Awards 2012, social impact category.
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So, the cost of developing and building 21 B-2 stealth bombers is 50,3 billion dollars. How much would it cost to supply the world with clean water?
Currently there are ~7,038,889,255 people on the world (http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html).
Using this device @ $50 (assuming you didn't use more cost efficent method/ larger apperatus)
Assume ~13 cup per person (average water needed daily for males [http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/water/NU00283],grossly high but effective), disreguarding water required for aggriculture, bathing, ect.
13/(17.44 cups produced per apparatus per day) or ~0.745 (apparatus per person).
(7,038,889,255 * 0.745)*$50=
The one time investment of.....
$5,243,972,494.975 or ~$5.2 billion
Free, clean drinking water no longer a problem.
I think you accidentally added $50 instead of multiplying. :)
If one makes the following assumptions:
* Only considering those 790 million people who lack water today.
http://www.worldometers.info/
* Everyone only needs 2L and nothing else (to cook food or wash)
* The only way they get water is the device mentioned in the article and it costs $50 per apparatus.
Then it would cost 1582 billion dollars. Which is 2.6% of the world annual GDP.
This sounds great. Make sure the material, including the glaze, do not contain lead or other harmful material.
Is there any place we can buy these?
Kind of like this one: http://www.solvatten.se/
What are the negative points, if any?
The only negative point that I think of is what do you do with the
leftover product - SALT .. At roughly 1/4 lb of salt per gallon of
seawater and lets say 10% of the worlds population with access to
seawater uses this method, then approx " 176 million lbs of salt "
would be generated a day. Just dumping this in the surrounding soil or
back in the oceans would over time have grave consequences, though
given the need of water for human life, I would use it.
Containment and what to do with the salt is one of the expenses in a
seawater RO plant and big business hates expenses.
There are many practical applications for salt... ranging from home to industrial use.
Aside from being used as a seasoning in the kitchen, it could be utilized for removing ice from roads... creation into crystals (which can be used for other things - space exploration, research, technology, etc.
And we can probably find ways to integrate it back into the environment in a manner that would speed up recovery.
But I would hope we would rather resort to generating clean water using atmospheric water generators - and desalination could be a stop gap measure mostly or used in smaller quantities.