Wind To Purify Salt Water

It's always great when we get to feature new inventions that could change the world for the better. Take this windmill for example. It's capable of turning salt water into pure, clean drinking water.

There are so many countries in the world that, despite being surrounded by ocean, suffer a serious lack of drinking water. There is no electricity required for the reverse osmosis system, so it could be an ideal solution for many third world countries. It's capable of producing enough water for 500 people in a single day. Water reservoirs will allow enough water to be stored for five days, so even in mild drought situations, or if there is not enough wind for a few days, there will be enough reserve water.

"The windmill was designed at the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in The Netherlands," DailyTech.com explains. "It runs by using the wind's mechanical force to pump water, and utilizes a high tech reverse osmosis membrane. The pumped water is pushed against this membrane at approximately 60 bar of pressure, and the salt is kept inside while pure water travels across the membrane.

"The windmill setup is estimated to 5 to 10 m3 of fresh water a day, based on the device's capacity at varying wind speeds."

This could be world changing. If these wind-driven machines were installed in nations in which people are being forced to drink contaminated drinking water, millions of diseases and deaths could be prevented.