Squeezing Water From The Sun and Sea

Squeezing Water From The Sun and Sea: Groundbreaking New Distiller Makes Potable Water Using Only Sunlight

By Kurtis Bright

Amazing New Device Uses Only Solar Power To Desalinate Sea Water

 

Bad news seems to be a booming commodity these days--just ask cable news outlets.

And while the 24-hour news cycle has painted itself into a corner, in that they constantly need bad news--overhyped, oversold and over-exaggerated though some of it may be--there really is a lot out there to legitimately be alarmed about. Sometimes its easy to start thinking it’s ALL bad news these days.

However, chalk one up in the good news column. Italian designer Gabriele Diamanti has created what he calls the Eliodomestico, a breakthrough water distiller/desalinator that harnesses the power of the sun to make clean, potable water from seawater.

The bulk of the device is a squat, round pot with two sections, a large, round lower body that shields a shallow bowl receptacle that sits underneath. The whole thing has a narrow plate atop it with a water-tight screw-on lid covering a second chamber, the top of which has an opening that is machined with screw threads like that of a pressure-based espresso-maker.

From the designer’s website:

“It works like an upside-down coffee-maker: during the day, the sun’s temperature raises up the steam pressure into the black, watertight boiler,” Diamanti’s website reads. “The steam is forced down through the expansion nozzle, thus condensing against the lid.”

A tube below the boiler ejects the boiled steam that has condensed into salt-free water into the pot below.

At the end of the day, you can collect a five-liter bowl of desalinated, potable water, in a ready-to-carry clay pan shaped to facilitate transport on top of the head, as is the ancient carrying method in developing countries, especially for the women and girls who are often tasked with gathering the family’s water.

Diamanti has released the plans for the design of the Eliodomestico, making it available to “anyone who needs it,” as the website reads. The device is easily constructed from cheap, locally available materials. For a one-time price of about $50, it can provide a family with safe, potable water for a lifetime.

Living in an age where companies like Nestlé threaten to commodify all fresh water all over the world and sell it back to us at 1000 percent profit, Diamanti’s Eliodomestico could be a genuine game-changer for not only some of the world’s poorest people--but also for those whose lives and livelihoods are most threatened by water scarcity and contamination.

Share the video here for a little two-minute ray of sunshine, a little slice of hope in a sometimes seemingly hopeless world.

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