C. Nygren

Howdy Yall,

With the multiple water treatment facility failures in the news I was digging into water purification/desalination and came across some interesting papers I thought I'd share here.

Yoon et. al. (2022) have now started field studies for a filterless desalinator! From what I've read it was designed to run off a little ($50) solar panel and only weighs 10kg. Looks like it currently only produces about .3L/hour, but with with additional solar panels and a battery backup that would be 7.2 Liters/day while off-grid. From related articles and interviews it sounds like the researchers are intending to create a desalination kit that would be available to consumers, likely at a reasonable cost as they target low-income families in coastal nations. While a bit too heavy for hiking, it sounds like it would be great for bugout vehicles and off-grid structures with access to non-potable water sources.

Guo et. al. (2022) looks further from market, but is more intriguing imo. Its a gel film that essentially acts like a powerless dehumidifier, just pulling water from the air but with no electricity! And its not just for the humid swamps, one report was saying that 1kg of the gell could pull 6L/day in humidities lower than 15%, and 13L/day with humidities up to 30%. In interviews the researchers are envisioning this gel as (eventually) available in hardware stores. Now it looks like the gel has to be heated to release the water, and the lifespan of the material hasn't been reported yet, but I still think its exciting.

At the moment I'm mostly geared for distillation over an open flame. What are yall's favorite current and future potential methods for water deslination/purification?

Papers:
Yoon, et. al. (2022) 'Portable Seawater Desalination System for Generating Drinkable Water in Remote Locations'. Environ. Sci. Technol. 2022, 56, 10, 6733–6743
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acs.est.1c08466 (Sadly there is a paywall).

Guo, el al. (2022) 'Scalable super hygroscopic polymer films for sustainable moisture harvesting in arid environments'. Nature Communications volume 13, Article number: 2761
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-30505-2 (No Paywall!).

Glad to hear the aeration is working! If you are interested in further clarity and further permaculture options, Missouri has a number of native shellfish; more info here: https://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/freshwater-mussels
The shellfish are filter feeds and, in some cases, can dramatically improve water clarity. Plus, your swimming hole could double as a source of food and mother of pearl!

Keep in mind that mosquito fish consistently out compete native minnows and as such are considered a dangerous invasive. Not an issue if it's a home pond that never connects to local waterways, but they will wipe out any other minnows or small fish.

Bladderworts may be a better option. A family of carnivorous plants with native species found in most parts of the world. There's a post on here with  more info

https://permies.com/t/50444/Bladderwort-Ultricularia-effective-mosquito-control#:~:text=Bladderwort%20is%20a%20carnivorous%20plant,yellow%20flowers%20in%20the%20spring.

As others have mentioned, adding sake or ACV as a rinse aid to gather up the last bits can make for great sauces.

For jams/jellies/other sweet things I'll do something similar with a liquor and make cocktails.

While reading through it looks like most of the comments prefer hot aerobic composting, does anyone have experience with anaerobic composting? I've seen a few setups that look to harvest the methane produced for biofuel, but I've not yet found any sustainable methods for dealing with the hydrogen sulfide.