Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras have identified molecular mechanisms in water flow.
This, they say, would be useful in designing novel reverse osmosis (RO) systems that use carbon nanotubes-based membranes.
Collaborative research
The research involved Swinburne University of Technology, Australia, and the Netherlands-based Delft University of Technology.
The study was sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology as part of Water Technology Initiative. Sarith P. Sathian, professor in the Department of Applied Mechanics and Vishhu Prasad Kurupath from IIT Madras, Sridhar Kumar Kannam from Swinburne University and Remco Hartkamp from Delft University, were in the team that worked on the research.
High energy
Their findings were published in the peer-reviewed journal Desalination.
Mr. Sarith said there was need for such advanced research as the process of desalination required energy, which leads to the requirement of large amounts of fresh water.
Due to this, a cyclic dependency ensues between freshwater availability and energy availability. The aim of this advanced research on desalination is to reduce the energy consumption.
The researchers investigated novel methods to effect desalination at high energy efficiency.
They also tried to improve state-of-the-art, energy-efficient desalination techniques.
This led to the study on improving the efficiency of RO.
.png?w=600)
