Next Generation of Watermaker Coming Soon?

[ohdrinkboy]

Interesting article.

Making Salt Water Drinkable Just Got 99 Percent Easier

[44'cruisingcat]

Sounds really good, hope they hit the market soon!

[Lizzy Belle]

Article is dated 3/15/13 - so it's 3 years old ...

Didn't check if there's more recent news, wifi is sloowwwwww

[barnakiel]

The news is 6 years old, some 4 years ago I have read about a company in Cal being 'nearly there' ... I cannot see these watermakers anywhere around. ;-(

b.

[Captain Bill]

Clearly someone doesn't understand the physics of reverse osmosis desalinization. Membrane resistance accounts for only about 50% of the pressure requirement to force pure H2O out of seawater. The osmotic pressure of seawater is approximately 375 PSI and even if you reduce the membrane resistance to 0 you still have to supply enough pressure to overcome the osmotic pressure. You might be able to reduce the pressure requirement about 50%, 99% isn't going to happen with a membrane, no matter what you make it from.

[unclemack]

Originally Posted by Captain Bill

Clearly someone doesn't understand the physics of reverse osmosis desalinization.

Me neither ...

Only looked at the first page of Google results, latest entry I saw was June 2015, only skimmed it.
Writer (let's just call him Mr. H) did say something about it working in a different way to existing RO whatever that might mean.
Didn't see any suggestion of a timetable - never a great sign.

Solving Water Management Issues | Exploration & Production

...don't understand half of what I read these days though

[pbmaise]

Feb 2015 Article states

Heller said commercialization of Perforene filters could begin in the next five years, possibly with some sort of medical device that would only require small amounts.

Finding a way to produce graphene with nanometer-sized holes on a commercial scale for desalination would probably take five or more years, he said. The company has tested it only on a small scale, but the results were promising.

...........

Problem is making the graphene with smaller hole is near 1 nm.
mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN0LO2F320150220

[leftbrainstuff]

I cant even find a patent on perforene. Possibly Lockheed Martin trademarked Perforene before patenting.

If there is no patent then they probably abandoned the research.

There were a couple of medical mentions in scholar.google.com . I also saw mention of other trademarked names. Perhaps LM missed the boat and their patent request was rejected as it failed to meet the unique prior art test.

There have been other nano size filters dating back to the 80s. I remember a fuel cell application to disassociate hydrogen and oxygen using a low resistance membrane. It went no where.

Sent from my SM-N900T using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[socaldmax]

Originally Posted by Lizzy Belle

Article is dated 3/15/13 - so it's 3 years old ...

Didn't check if there's more recent news, wifi is sloowwwwww

It took 3 yrs to get there...


that really is slow! LOL

[barnakiel]

The point is no one seems to have actually 'gotten there' yet. There is no product even though the idea sounds worth prototyping. I went to our local ferreteria (ironmonger) but they do not have graphene sheets one molecule thick. I bought some graphite pencils and started drawing.

I like the post on pressure above - not much discussed while actually this is one of the posts that push our cruising knowledge forward.

As the value of a watermaker is so much weighted in the pump/membrane, I think even with pressure drop by 50% we could build some less expensive units.

b.

[Lizzy Belle]

Originally Posted by socaldmax

that really is slow! LOL

Hahaha! Yeah, slowest Wifi EVER here

Tho to be honest, I was also too lazy to look into this -- I don't have a watermaker nor do I want one in the future.

Except for that bit of ocean, I expect countries in the Caribbean and Europe to have plenty of drinking water

[socaldmax]

Originally Posted by Lizzy Belle

Hahaha! Yeah, slowest Wifi EVER here

Tho to be honest, I was also too lazy to look into this -- I don't have a watermaker nor do I want one in the future.

Except for that bit of ocean, I expect countries in the Caribbean and Europe to have plenty of drinking water

There's a youtube video of a couple exploring atolls of the South Pacific, it really struck me as a beautiful tribute to the unspoiled beauty away from civilization, and countries. I've tossed the idea around in my head to explore these small, nearly forgotten little atolls, this would require a water maker and a lot of stored food. A water maker would allow me to carry a lot less water and make it as desired, while converting the unused water tank to a diesel tank and doubling or tripling fuel capacity. That, plus about 3Kw of solar panels should allow extended journeys (6 to 9 months?) cruising deserted atolls and islands.

It seems like the more unspoiled, scenic places are farther off the beaten path.

[anguilla1980]

This is years old vaporware.

[Jsta_Rebel]

Membrane technology has came a long way as has the energy recovery devices that make up the driving pressure of the feed water. Nanos technologies are now coating polyamide membranes with nanotechnology particles giving the membranes ionic capabilities while lowering the necessary osmotic pressure necessary. However, you still need a pump capable of delivering the required feed flow of the membrane configuration at over 600 PSI on 52k conductivity water which is standard throughout the east coast and Caribbean. You can't cheat this. It's the laws of physics. You also have to have the correct recovery rate or brine flow vs product water. This is called Flux, and cheating either of these will cause you issues with your watermaker.

[Boatguy30]

Geez, was just about to email Rich and tell him never mind. Seriously though, still trying to figure out the best way to go for a smallish cat on long passages.