There will come a time when pure water is more precious than gasoline. Actually, in many parts of the Middle East and Africa, drinking water already costs more per gallon.
There is a fabulous new "forward osmosis" process recently announced from "Saltworks" - a Vancouver company which also has reverse osmosis and other filtration technologies. This one was discovered in conjunction with a Government Lab. It use only a fraction of the energy of RO. http://www.greencentrecanada.com/about-us/our-lab.php http://www.saltworkstech.com/ Sci- News writeup: http://www.cleanbreak.ca/2013/01/18/could-switchable-salts-be-a-game-changer -for-desalination-market/ They did not disclose the identity of the so-called "switchable salt," and I'm curious about it. A cursory search turns up one candidate- which is ammonium carbonate, is a salt that can be produced from carbon dioxide and ammonia (which are gases). It is known as a "smelling salt" for reasons that must be experienced to be understood. It is probably combined with other similar volatile salts in this forward osmosis process. This purification method can probably be solar powered. Ammonium carbonate salt decomposes easily into a volatile gas at low temperature - and is non-toxic. It has been used as leavening for bread for centuries. The aroma is well... "funky" would not be an exaggeration... at least until you get used to it. Anyway - congrats to the Canucks ... they may have a winner, slightly funky or not. At least if ammonium carbonate is involved, they will probably not have a problem with workers trying to sneak off for a "cat nap"... Jones
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