UT Chemists Develop New Desalination Method

EarthSky reports that chemists at the University of Texas at Austin have developed a simple, energy-efficient method for desalinating seawater that they hope can be applied on a larger scale. The process, called electrochemically mediated seawater desalination, removes salt by creating a small electrical field. Richard Crook, a chemistry professor at UT, told EarthSky, "The membrane-free method we’ve developed still needs to be refined and scaled up, but if we can succeed at that, then one day it might be possible to provide fresh water on a massive scale using a simple, even portable, system.”