Billions of people to benefit from technology breakthrough that ensures freshwater for the world

https://www.unisa.edu.au/media-centre/Releases/2024/billions-of-people-to-benefit-from-technology-breakthrough-that-ensures-freshwater-for-the-world/

The news below is grand news for the planet and the people everywhere. Water is going to be a desperately needed highly valuable necessity. Also I have another doctor’s appointment this morning. Hugs

——————————————————————————————————

04 December 2024

A novel approach to make seawater evaporate faster than freshwater has been hailed as a significant breakthrough in desalination technology that will benefit billions of people worldwide.

Up to 36% of the world’s eight billion people currently suffer from severe freshwater shortages for at least four months of the year, and this could potentially increase to 75% by 2050, threatening the survival of humans.

Seawater desalination is one of the most effective strategies to alleviate the impending scarcity, but existing processes consume massive amounts of energy, leaving a large carbon footprint.

Researchers from the University of South Australia (UniSA) have already demonstrated the potential of interfacial solar-powered evaporation as an energy-efficient, sustainable alternative to current desalination methods, but they are still limited by a lower evaporation rate for seawater compared to pure water due to the negative effect of salt ions on water evaporation.

UniSA materials science researcher Professor Haolan Xu has now collaborated with researchers from China on a project to develop a simple yet effective strategy to reverse this limitation.

By introducing inexpensive and common clay minerals into a floating photothermal hydrogel evaporator, the team achieved seawater evaporation rates that were 18.8% higher than pure water. This is a significant breakthrough since previous studies all found seawater evaporation rates were around 8% lower than pure water.

“The key to this breakthrough lies in the ion exchange process at the air-water interface,” Prof Xu says.

“The minerals selectively enrich magnesium and calcium ions from seawater to the evaporation surfaces, which boosts the evaporation rate of seawater. This ion exchange process occurs spontaneously during solar evaporation, making it highly convenient and cost-effective.”

Considering the global desalination market – which numbers around 17,000 operational plants worldwide – even small declines in desalination performance can result in the loss of tens of millions of tons of clean water.

“This new strategy, which could be easily integrated into existing evaporation-based desalination systems, will provide additional access to massive amounts of clean water, benefitting billions of people worldwide,” Prof Xu says.

The researchers say the hydrogel evaporator maintained its performance even after months of immersion in seawater.

The next steps will involve exploring more strategies that can make seawater evaporation faster pure water evaporation and apply them into practical seawater desalination.

The findings have been published in the journal Advanced Materials.

Notes for editors

“Making Interfacial Solar Evaporation of Seawater Faster than Freshwater” is authored by researchers from the University of South Australia, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Jinan University, Tianjin University, University of New South Wales, University of Adelaide, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Nanjing Forestry University. DOI: 10.1002/adma.202414045

The mineral materials used in the process included halloysite nanotubes (HNTs), bentonite (BN), zeolite (ZL), and montmorillonite (MN) in combination with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and sodium alginate (SA) to form a photothermal hydrogel.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Media contact: Candy Gibson M: +61 434 605 142 E: candy.gibson@unisa.edu.au
Research contacts: Professor Haolan Xu E: haolan.xu@unisa.edu.au; Dr Gary Owens
E: gary.owens@unisa.edu.au

Water is a finite resource. A must watch very short video by Ten Bears.

Klamath Dams, before and after …

Pacific killer whales have enough food, but are still struggling

October 22, 2024 Evrim Yazgin

Marine biologists have challenged the claim that lack of food is driving a population crash in killer whales in the Pacific Ocean saying boat noise may be the issue.

Killer whales (Orcinus orca) frequent the waters of British Columbia and feed on Chinook salmon.

Killer whale pod with forest in the background — Killer whale pod in Johnstone Strait, British Columbia. Credit: Francois Gohier/VW Pics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images.

Researchers from the University of British Columbia in Canada used echosounder data to determine prey salmon densities, as well as discussions with local anglers and whale watching crews in British Columbia, Canada.

There are 2 different populations. One population is local to northern waters. These killer whales have tripled their numbers to about 300 individuals since monitoring began in the 1970s.

The other population inhabits the waters between British Columbia and California to the south. Their numbers fluctuated between 66 and 98 individuals with the latest census putting their numbers at just 73.

“The differing trajectories of these two populations of fish-eating killer whales have been attributed to ecological and biological differences between regions such as prey availability, diet breadth, competition, physical disturbance, underwater noise, contaminants and inbreeding,” the authors write. “However, food availability likely plays the greatest role in limiting their carrying capacities.”

Previous research has shown a correlation between salmon numbers and killer whale population health. But the authors say these studies have never been able to show why the southern population was struggling.

In fact, the southern population of killer whale is the only marine mammal that is struggling in the region. Harbour seals, sea lions, other types of whale and porpoises are all thriving.

Nevertheless lack of access to the Chinook salmon was always put down as the reason for the killer whales’ woes.

But sport anglers told the researchers that they have noticed no drop in salmon numbers. And whale watchers have reported that they have regularly seen the endangered orcas swimming among salmon.

The researchers suggest that the issue isn’t lack of salmon, but that the southern population of killer whales are having trouble catching their prey. This, they say, is likely due to noise from boats. The area where the southern orca population lives has far higher sea traffic than the regions further north.

It’s also possible the orca struggle to hunt at different times of year. They may find enough salmon in summer, but have trouble during spring.

The findings are presented in a paper published in PLOS ONE.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/nature/marine-life/pacific-killer-whale-food/

I read about this young woman Saturday. You may be interested to read about her, too-

I do the free clicks on Free The Ocean, just to help make a dent in the amount of plastic in Earth’s oceans. The clicks are to answer trivia questions, and frequently I learn something, especially on days when I guess the answer. Yesterday’s (I had it up to post yesterday, too, but didn’t get it done until late) was about Autumn Peltier. I was interested, so I pulled up some more info on her, and she is post-worthy.

Free The Ocean tells us that “Autumn Peltier is a young Canadian activist known for advocacy for clean water and ocean protection. At the age of eight, she was inspired to make a difference. In the last 11 years, her voice has become powerful in the movement to protect marine environments and work toward a healthier planet for future generations.“

Here is some biographical info. “Autumn Peltier is the chief water commissioner of the Anishinabek Nation, and a water-rights advocate and environmental activist.

“Peltier was born on September 17, 2004, in Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory, Manitoulin Island, Ontario, Canada, and is a member of the Aniishnabek Nation.” There is more on the page, too.

An article from 2017 on CBC News tells us, “Even at the tender age of 12, Autumn Peltier speaks with the wisdom of someone much older.

“’I’m going to be an ancestor one day,’ says Peltier, from her home in Wikwemikong First Nation in northern Ontario. ‘I’m still going to have great-grandchildren on this land and I hope they are still able to drink the water.’

“Despite her youth, Peltier is already a veteran activist when it comes to the issue of clean drinking water — not just in First Nations communities, but across the country.

“’I do what I do for the water because water is sacred,’ says Peltier, who was honoured by the Assembly of First Nations as a water protector.

“Since water doesn’t have a voice, Peltier says she wants to lend hers to the cause. Even if that means taking on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as she did last December at the AFN’s annual winter gathering.”

There is even more information here, on CIWEM , the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management. This one is current, with some family history. This is a remarkable young woman!

A couple of bits from Cosmos

for science!

Lithium-ion batteries made from wastewater phosphorus

Good news for some sustainability. Here’s a snippet:

“Engineers have found a way to turn phosphorus from city wastewater into parts for lithium-ion batteries.

“The Chinese researchers say that their method could be used to supply 35% of the phosphorus demand for their national lithium-ion battery industry.

“They’ve published their findings in Engineering.

“Phosphorus is a common component in the cathodes of lithium-ion batteries – specifically, lithium iron phosphate batteries, which represent about 60% of the lithium-ion market according to the researchers.

“As an important ingredient in fertilisers and industrial chemicals, mineral phosphorus is in high demand. Mining stocks of phosphorus are expected to be depleted in the next 50-100 years.

“But, point out the researchers, more than 250,000 tonnes of phosphorus pollutes Chinese wastewater every year, coming from food consumption and chemical waste. This is more phosphorus than the amount consumed each year to make batteries.” (snip)

“The researchers used their wastewater-derived mixture to build small lithium-ion batteries in the lab. These batteries could charge and discharge at the rates needed for electric vehicles and large-scale storage systems, and they kept 99.2% of their capacity after being charged and discharged 100 times.

“Batteries made with higher doses of the wastewater material performed better than batteries made with lower doses. The researchers believe that impurities from the sludge helped to stabilise the batteries, allowing them to perform better.

“’The amount of phosphorus recovered from municipal wastewater is projected to be sufficient to meet up to 35% of the phosphorus demand by the lithium-ion battery industry in China, enhancing the cost-effectiveness of phosphorus recovery and alleviating the global shortage of phosphorus resources to achieve both clean energy and sustainable development,’ conclude the researchers in their paper.”

=====

When it rains, it pours! This old idea looks set to be Australia’s future

“In the last few years, Australia has faced both flooding rains and some of the lowest rainfall on record. Now, researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have the data that explains why rain in Australia has seemed so unpredictable.

“The researchers have shown that human-induced climate warming is driving increases in rainfall variability over 75% of the Earth’s land, and they say the effects are especially prominent in Australia.

“The study looked at increases in rainfall variability, which can mean wetter wet periods and drier dry periods. They found that daily variability has increased by 1.2% per decade globally, and that humans are largely to blame.

“’The increase in rainfall variability is mainly due to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, which have led to a warmer and more humid atmosphere,’ said Dr Zhang Wenxia, lead author of the study.

“’This means that even if the atmospheric circulation remains the same, the additional moisture in the air leads to more intense rain events and more drastic fluctuations between them.’

“Professor Steven Sherwood at the UNSW Climate Change Research Centre, who was not involved in the study, told the AusSMC that this means rainier rainy periods and drier dry periods.

“’This is going to increase as global warming continues, enhancing the chances of droughts and/or floods.’

“The paper identified Australia as being a particular hotspot for rainfall variability. Dr Milton Speer from the University of Technology Sydney said the paper’s findings are significant, and that other recent studies have had similar conclusions.” (snip-More)