I love the social custom of clinking glasses or beer bottles. Cheers!

My wife and I clink our glasses when we first drink together, even if it’s just water. Somehow, it connects us more.

During some of my ‘time-well-wasted,’ I came across the latest advances in seawater desalination. The future looks very hopeful.

Over the last few years, I’ve been following the research using graphene membranes to remove salt from seawater. It shows promise.

First, a very brief overview of the science.

One of several membrane approaches to filter salt from seawater involves using graphene. One of its properties is its nano-sized pores, which allow unsalted water through but not salted water.

Enough of the science lesson!

Some of the properties of graphene include:

1. It is 200 times stronger than steel.
2. It is foldable.
3. It captures less than 3% of light and transmits the rest, making it invisible.
4. Graphene is made from carbon, which is readily available.

The science has continued to improve both cost and efficiency. One significant step is to show proof of concept at a large scale. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Small units will likely be manufactured to help in specific situations.

Let’s dream a little. Small coastal communities by the seawater could have an affordable supply of fresh drinking water. Rich soil in the vicinity could now be used for farmland with irrigation. Ships at sea could receive fresh water daily for both humans and animals. Manufacturing plants or large data centres with thousands of servers could be cooled if located near tidal waters.

Water is relatively safe and easy to transport via pipeline. It can be treated at the shoreline and moved long distances to population centres. I live in the Greater Edmonton Area (GEA), which has a population of over 1 million. We source our water from glaciers in the Canadian Rockies, about a 500 km drive to the west.

This seems fanciful until I see the receding glaciers markers. Pipelines will be cheaper than many other options.

Getting back to the mutual toasting of our water glasses, drinking water is essential to life. Water is too cheap. We flush many litres of water through our toilet system every day. I feel guilty when I run the tap to get hot water. Why can’t that water run into the toilet tank? I take my vehicle to the car wash for weddings and funerals. Otherwise, rain is sufficient.

Please give this a bit of a think. What is your relationship to water? Could it have similar rights to people?

I am curious about your thoughts. Please comment below or send me an email with your bit of a think.

My thanks to the Chemical Engineering Journal, March 1, 2024

Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

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glenn.walmsley@icloud.com