Graphene membranes, the tiniest thing, could be a very big thing. Pure water is a limited quantity in the western US, and especially here in San Diego where it costs $Billions as we have to import all our water. It was only a hundred years ago in December 1913 that engineering on a very big scale brought water to Los Angeles, making possible its rapid growth. It is frustrating when you consider we're sitting next to the Pacific Ocean. RO plants have been proposed, but are very energy intensive and expensive. This problem needs to be solved to avoid the predicted water crisis in the book below.
The West without Water - B. Lynn Ingram, Frances Malamud-Roam - Hardcover - University of California Press
Book Review: Scientific American
Purifying Water With Nanotech - IEEE - The Institute
Jeffrey C. Grossman, MIT associate professor of power engineering, and
his graduate students David Cohen-Tanugi and Shreya Dave are developing a
filtration material made of a sheet of nanoporous graphene. The holes
in the graphene—a one-atom thick form of carbon—are small enough to
block salt ions while letting water molecules through. Smithsonian magazine called this nanoporous form of carbon one of the top five surprising scientific milestones of 2012.
Cohen-Tanugi presented their paper, “Water Desalination Across Nanoporous Graphene,” at the IEEE Conference on Technology for Sustainability, held in August, in Portland, Ore.
...
100 Years Ago: Engineering Brings Water to Los Angeles, 1913: Scientific American
Water for a City
“The
new Los Angeles Aqueduct is designed to bring 265 million gallons of
water daily over a distance of 234 miles from the Sierras to Los
Angeles. This new aqueduct was dedicated and opened to use on November
5th, and on our front page of this week's issue we present a view taken
at the moment when the gates were opened to start the flow of water
down the cascade formed below the exit of the tunnel through the Santa
Susana Range, 25 miles northwest of the city of Los Angeles. This
cascade fulfills a double function—it was designed partly on esthetic
grounds, but also for the purpose of assisting in the purification of
the water by aeration.”
LA Aqueduct Centennial | Los Angeles Department of Water and Power
History of the LA Aqueduct
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