Sponsored by SurfShark VPN.
We all take freshwater for granted, but we shouldn't.
Based on the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), by 2025 two thirds of the global population may
experience water scarcity.
And that’s because of global warming-driven droughts.
Supply cuts are looming in the Southwestern US and water is fueling wars across the world.
So, how can we get out of this *deep water*?
There’s a sea of desalination technologies coming up.
Like solar domes in the desert or nano-membranes making seawater drinkable in minutes.
Let's take a look at how nanotechnology could help contain the fresh water crisis.
I'm Matt Ferrell ... welcome to Undecided.
Before diving into the wellspring of fresh nanotechnologies, let’s zoom in on the water
crisis just for a minute.
It helps to give context for why this could be transformational.
With climate change, many regions are experiencing higher temperatures and lower rainfall.
This is a lethal combination that dries out our water reserves.
A typical example of this is the southwestern United States.
Over the last 20 years alone, the average temperature in some regions of the Southwest
increased by up to 2°F (ca. 1.11°C).
To add to that, since 1990 the entire region has become drier because of moderate to severe
droughts.
Based on a 2020 study , this trend was caused by the first climate change-driven megadrought
hitting the southwestern states.
Researchers found this to be the second driest spell affecting the region in the last 1,200
years.
What's happening here is happening in other areas of the world too, but it shouldn't be
a surprise.
But how is this affecting our water resources?
40 million people living across seven southwestern states rely on Lake Mead for freshwater supply.
That's where Las Vegas gets 90% of its water from.
Created by blocking the Colorado river with the Hoover Dam, Lake Mead is also a hydropower
plant, generating enough clean electricity for 8 million Americans.
While still being one of the largest water reservoirs in the world , this massive pool
is getting emptier by the year.
The Colorado river’s flow dwindled by about 20% compared to the last century.
And it may shrink by up to 31% by the middle of this century.
But it’s not just the lack of water falling from the sky causing this shortage.
Scientists revealed higher temperatures are playing a key role.
As the region is warming up, snow is disappearing from the Colorado Rocky Mountains.
The snow-free patches absorb more sunlight and become hotter, which causes more water
to evaporate from the land and to be given off by plants.
All of this means a lower amount of water will make its way towards the river eventually
reaching the lake.
After dropping by 140 feet (ca. 44 meters) since 2000 above the so-called “dead pool”
level, which is when water can no longer come out of the dam.
So this affects not just drinking water, but generating electricity.
But which are the most *thirsty* culprits for water scarcity on a global scale?
If you’re thinking about cutting down on drinking water ... don’t bother.
Keep gulping your gallon of water per day.
Drinking, washing, and toilet flushing combined only accounts for 8% of our yearly freshwater
consumption.
of water.
So, what’s the result of all this water consumption?
For Lake Mead, it's a lower energy production, with the Hoover dam energy efficiency dropping
by 25% after reaching its lowest water capacity.
And of course, there's less water available for people in the Southwest to use.
Last August, the US government officially declared the first ever water shortage for
Lake Mead.
This will cause cuts in water supply, with some farmers who may be forced to give up
on the cultivation of their land.
Arizona will lose the biggest slice of the Colorado pie, which amounts to just about
8% of its national water usage for agriculture and human consumption.
That’s why the state is considering the construction of a desalination plant on the
Sea of Cortez in Mexico.
Based on the UN World Bank, drought could drive 700 million people out of their homes
by 2030.
Such a massive climate migration could brew up political instability across the globe.
And it’s already happened.
The Pacific Institute put together a log of 925 water conflicts since the Babylonian civilization.
They concluded that most of the wars were agriculture-related.
And research showed water-based conflicts increased around 5 times over the last 100
years.
So, what can we do to get out of this?
This is where technology comes in.
But before I get to that, I’d like to thank Surfshark for sponsoring today’s video.
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Now back to how some new technologies may be able to help with the freshwater crisis...
With surface freshwater running out and underground pools being expensive to get to, everyone
is diving into the seawater, which makes sense being 97% of the Earth's water resources.
, which I’ll link to in the description, but let me give you a quick refresher.
Basically, you push seawater through a semi-permeable membrane that traps the salts while letting
the pure water go through it.
Simple, right?
Yes, but energy-demanding.
And typically, you would burn fossil fuels to get the high pressure you need to make
it work.
This translates into 76 million tons of CO2 per year emitted by desalination plants worldwide.
Which will skyrocket to 500 million tons of CO2 per year by 2040 if we don’t find a
low-carbon alternative.
But there’s another environmental cost to add to that.
The RO process by-product is a highly concentrated salt solution, a.k.a. brine, that's currently
dumped into the ocean.
Being heavier than seawater, this slurry settles into the deep waters and the salt overload
consumes oxygen , which kills marine wildlife.
An RO plant could produce up to two liters of brine for every liter of clean water.
According to a recent study, its production is 50% higher than what was previously estimated.
But someone is trying to water down those environmental impacts.
Accounting for 22% of the global brine disposal technology.
Essentially, you have many large mirrors that focus sunlight onto a glass semi sphere.
Doing so, a localized greenhouse effect will vaporize the seawater contained within a metallic
giant pot.
You then pump the steam out and condense it into clean water.
Based on the developers, the plant will entirely rely on solar energy, which means being carbon
neutral.
But there's still the question of the waste brine.
Their plan is to extract salts for lithium battery components or grit or fertilizers.
But there's some big question marks around this, so it's probably good to remain a little
skeptical there.
Some of these questions will be answered by the pilot plant, which is expected to be finished
by the end of 2022.
.
But solar domes aren't the only alternative to RO.
There's also new materials being used for membrane distillation, which is more energy
efficient.
Now, I'm not a scientist, but from our research on this, membrane distillation is where a
micro-porous membrane is used to separate two solutions at different temperatures.
In this case, salt water and fresh water.
The temperature gradient on the membrane creates a vapor pressure difference allowing the water
vapor to pass through the membrane and collect on the other side.
Korean engineers designed a nanofiber membrane that desalinates seawater with a 99.99% efficiency.
Using a polymer as a core and silica gel as a shell, they made a composite membrane through
a process called co-axial electrospinning.
Hang with me here because this will make your head *spin*.
In this setup, you have two separate coaxial syringes feeding two fluids into a nozzle.
When applying high voltage to the system, you create an electrostatic field between
the tip of the nozzle and a nearby rotating collector plate.
As the droplet comes out of the nozzle it stretches out, turning into a filament that's
collected onto the rotating surface.
You end up with a nanolayer of material.
Thanks to their outstanding water repellency, these electrospun membranes don't get wet.
That’s a huge plus since wetting has been a major challenge for the membrane distillation
process.
Once a membrane gets fully wetted, you’ll have salts sneaking into the output water.
Because of this reduction in separation effectiveness, you'll need to replace the membrane.
Based on their tests , the research group achieved a stable water distillation over
30 days.
This is a significant improvement in terms of operational performance as similar membranes
start losing efficiency after about 2 days.
According to the study’s lead author, these novel membranes show promise for commercialization
and could help mitigate the freshwater crisis.
However, it's important to note that this has only been tested at lab scale so far.
In a similar realm, there’s another composite membrane that could save a huge amount of
precious freshwater.
EnergyX has recently raised $20 million to develop its direct
lithium extraction (DLE) technology.
that you can check out.
Water scarcity could be a *tsunami* for the future of our society.
Clearly, we need to focus on the value of freshwater and adopt more responsible consumption.
However, the scale-up of sustainable desalination technologies will be vital.
But what do you think?
Do you think these new nanotech freshwater solutions can help?
Jump into the comments and let me know.
And thanks as always to my patrons and welcome to new Supporter+ member J Travis and Producer
Cameron Stephens.
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