Clean Water for the World

Votes: 2
Views: 817

AquaDynamics is developing a water purification system that will allow the recycling of water. It uses no filters, chemicals or UV light. Instead, it purifies water the way nature does: through evaporation and condensation, only more efficiently -- up to 99.75% efficient. I have worked on systems like this for 15 years. I designed and developed a distiller that distilled water for just 20 watt*hours but it just wasn't robust enough to be reliable which is a big part if you want to solve the world's water crisis. That is the uniqueness of this solution. It eliminates all the complexity of other solutions so that it is reliable yet still efficient and it scales. From a tabletop unit that will distill just one gallon in about two hours to a unit that could distill hundreds of gallons in a day. Enough to supply a whole village with its water and it can run on solar panels.

This device can make any water drinkable including the water out of a septic system and the water it delivers is cleaner than that of any municipality in the world can deliver. Because it cleans the water at the point of use there is no infrastructure needed to get the water to and from a centralized processing plant. It cannot deliver contaminated water so there is no need of constantly testing the water before and after like with traditional Reverse Osmosis systems. Reverse Osmosis (RO) is the current standard process for cleaning water. There are all sorts of impurities that RO can't remove such as bacteria, viruses or PFAS and other chemicals. Distillation removes all of these and it doesn’t require chemicals or the use of UV. This is the future of water purification.

1) Influent enters the evaporator at 212 and atmospheric pressure.
2) In the evaporator, the influent is heated with the heat coming from the condensers.
3) The pure steam is compressed by the compressor
4) As the steam enters the condenser, it is at a higher pressure and a slightly higher temperature.
5) As the steam condensers on the e/c wall, the heat of vaporization is conducted to the next water as it is boiled off in the evaporator.
6) The distillate is then drained into the distillate container.

As long as the pressure differential is maintained the water will continue to be distilled. The more efficient the heat transfer of the heat of vaporization the less pressure required. 

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  • ABOUT THE ENTRANT

  • Name:
    Edward Condon
  • Type of entry:
    individual
  • Profession:
    Engineer/Designer
  • Number of times previously entering contest:
    1
  • Edward's favorite design and analysis tools:
    SolidWorks, Creo
  • Edward's hobbies and activities:
    Cycling, Wakeboarding
  • Edward is inspired by:
    I am both a design and manufacturing engineer. I enjoy creating simple solutions to problems. Lack of access to clean water is one of mans greatest challenges. I have been working on a solution for 15 years. I think I have finally developed a solution that simple and robust enough to be inexpensive yet still be reliable. I enjoy solutions to problems that are simple yet elegant. That's exactly what this water purification system is.
  • Software used for this entry:
    SolidWorks
  • Patent status:
    none