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tldr-bot1 point2 days ago

Researchers at the University of Rochester have developed a new method to convert ocean water into drinking water without generating waste. The innovation represents a significant advancement in desalination technology and water purification.

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lonk3 points2 days ago

Sounds neat. Wonder how viable it is at scale, or if it’s too good to be true and ends up being a white elephant?

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p4r4d0x2 points2 days ago

The article mentions it's demonstrated in "small-scale devices" and the researcher says it's "inherently scalable", but it's only been tested in controlled conditions with real seawater samples, not at industrial scale. I'd still be pretty pleased with myself if I were the researcher.

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lonk2 points1 day ago

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s pretty astounding and I hope it’s viable! But I feel like I’ve heard that “inherently scalable” comment so many times, for fantastic sounding technological advances that do end up being white elephants or just don’t end up working outside of the proof of concept for whatever reason.

Still, I do hope it becomes viable.

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aristophanes2 points1 day ago

Yeah, gotta be interesting to see the cost analysis on scaling this, because the tech sounds a bit complex. Like it would need to be hand manufactured by extremely skilled labourers to work. Would scaling be viable if you can't take care of the slave labour that makes the current "cheap" solar panels sold today?

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