They Purified Seawater and Turned It into Drinking Water

Converting Seawater into Drinking Water through Purification ISTANBUL (AA) - Students Mevlüt Arkan, Mehmet Can Akın and Utku Gökyer from the Energy Systems Engineering Department at Istanbul Bilgi University (BİLGİ) have developed a project that purifies seawater and converts it into drinking water. According to a statement from BİLGİ, the project, developed under the supervision of Associate Professor Erdem Günay, purifies seawater using solar energy. In this way, it offers a sustainable alternative to methods that purify seawater using fossil energy.

Mevlüt Arkan, whose views were included in the statement, said the following on the subject:

'Our project can be an alternative purification method, especially for countries with limited clean water resources and those using fossil-based purification methods to access clean water. Reducing the negative environmental impact of fossil energy sources, which we use in every area of life, is vital for all of us. With this perspective, we have developed a completely environmentally friendly device that can obtain pure water using solar energy.' Arkan noted that seawater is already being desalted and converted into drinking water in Gulf countries, and said that their project benefits from solar energy instead of fossil fuels for the purification process. [caption id="attachment_144743" align="aligncenter"] Image Source: ISTANBUL (AA)[/caption]

One in three people lacks access to safe drinking water

According to United Nations data, one in three people in the world today does not have access to safe drinking water. Currently, 2.3 billion people live in water-stressed countries, and for 733 million of this population, lack of access to water resources poses a serious risk. As potable freshwater sources continue to decline, it is expected that by 2040 water demand could increase by 50 percent, which would further increase pressure on this vital life resource.

Mehmet Can Akın, explaining the working principle of the project, described it as follows:

'Thanks to the Fresnel lenses we have installed, we concentrate sunlight at a single point to increase evaporation inside. The evaporated pure water droplets then collect on the roof of the dome and flow from there into clean water tanks.'

Utku Gökyer noted that clean water resources in the world are gradually declining and that they aim to improve the lives of people without access to clean water through this project.

'The project can create an important resource for every segment with medium and small-scale water needs. As the world is rapidly moving towards 2050 Net Zero targets, with this project using solar energy we aimed to reduce carbon footprint and create an alternative to purification processes carried out with fossil fuels,' he explained.   ISTANBUL (AA)