Veolia Water Technologies by GineersNow Engineering Magazine GineersNow Engineering Magazine September 2016 | Page 13

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Photo by WomenInNano
OREGON COMPANY
USES THE POWER
OF THE SUN TO
PURIFY WATER THIS MINI
GENERATOR GETS
ENERGY FROM
SALT WATER
Portland is a start-up
company based in Oregon
that is using solar technology
to reduce E. coli, Salmonella
and Listeria contamination
in agricultural water. They
have received a state grant
to develop their passive
treatment system, “Ray”.
According to Ken Vaughn,
the
commercialization
director at Oregon Best
(a supporter of the
development of cleantech
businesses), that while the
idea of Portland-based Focal
Technologies Innovative
Solar Water Treatment
System is not new, small
scale efforts to purify water
with similar technology have
been expensive. He says that
Ray is a promising clean
technology that may be able
to provide an inexpensive, Aleksandra
Radenovic,
a nanoscientist at the
Swiss Federal Institute
of Technology, recently
published the schematics
of a new type of flat,
membrane-like
power
generator. This generator will
get energy from the process
of osmosis. Osmosis happens
when the salts in salty water
spreads out evenly into
freshwater passing through
a membrane.
This mini generator will
only be three atoms wide at
its thinnest point. It could
be used in places like river
mouths and creeks, or other
places where waters with
different salinities constantly
mix.
The membrane is a thin sheet
that is studded with an array
of very tiny holes. It is made
up of cheap compound called
large-scale solution to
using solar energy in
purifying water.
“So it looks like Focal
Technologies has a new
product that they’ve been
developing over a number
of years that’s really
a fundamentally new
technology that harnesses
the power of the sun to
provide a cost-effective
way to treat wastewater,”
Vaughn said.
molybdenum disulfide. The
holes are just the right size
so that only certain sized
salts can pass through.
According to Radenovic,
the electric promise of
her generator could be
enormous. Estimating only
a three foot square made of
her flat device will be able
to theoretically produce a
megawatt of power.
SEPTEMBER 2016
Clean Water Technologies
13