Standard Water Treatment Eliminates Enveloped Viruses Including Coronavirus

This treatment has the potential to remove from drinking water nearly all viruses that have an “outer fortress.”

Pre-Treatment Solution for Water Recovery

The solution increases water recovery, prevents mineral scaling, and cuts the volume of brines in half.

Desalination Process Removes Toxic Metals

The desalination method produces clean water while, at the same time, potentially capturing valuable metals such as gold.

Filters from Tree Branches Purify Drinking Water

Prototypes show promise as a low-cost, natural filtration option.

Products of Tomorrow: July 2021

Battery recycling, NASA's water treatment, and a wireless wearable transmitter.

5 Ws of the Sunlight-Powered Water Filter

The invention could help solve the problem of providing clean water off the grid or where low-cost, non-powered water purification is needed.

Products of Tomorrow: June 2021

Head-up displays, health-monitoring sensors from NASA, and a pollen sponge.

Generating Renewable Hydrogen Fuel from the Sea

Membranes that remove salt from water help split sea water into fuel.

Material Advances for LED Quantum Dot Efficiency

Creating next-generation LEDs for novel efforts like COVID-19 decontamination requires LED manufacturers to reevaluate the materials that they’re using.

Wireless Aquatic Robot Cleans Water

Inspired by a coral polyp, this plastic mini robot moves by magnetism and light.

Q&A: Simple Solar-Powered Desalination

Lenan Zhang and his team at MIT developed a small, economical, highly efficient device to provide fresh drinking water using only the Sun for its energy input.

Process Turns Sand and Plant Materials into a Water Filtration Tool

According to the United Nations, 2.1 billion people lack access to safely managed drinking water services and the majority live in developing nations. A process was...

2019 'Create the Future' Sustainable Technologies Category Winner: Wave-Powered Water Desalination

Learn about the world's first wave-driven desalination system.

Rose-Inspired Device Collects and Purifies Water

A new device, inspired by a rose, inexpensively collects and purifies water. The device is a new approach to solar steaming for water production — a technique that uses energy from sunlight...

New Imaging Method Aids in Water Decontamination

A breakthrough imaging technique developed by Cornell researchers shows promise in decontaminating water by yielding surprising and important information about catalyst particles that can't be...

Products of Tomorrow: August 2019

This column presents technologies that have applications in commercial areas, possibly creating the products of tomorrow. To learn more about each technology, see the contact information provided for that...

Products of Tomorrow: April 2019

This column presents technologies that have applications in commercial areas, possibly creating the products of tomorrow. To learn more about each technology, see the contact information provided for that...

System Selectively Sequesters Toxins from Water

Traditional methods, such as reverse osmosis, that remove contaminants from water are expensive and energy-intensive. Researchers have developed technology to remove contaminants from water,...

Facility Focus: Savannah River National Laboratory

The Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) — located in Aiken, SC — is the applied research and development laboratory at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Savannah River Site...

High-Voltage Power Line Multi-Sensor System

Government infrastructure facilities such as water treatment facilities, power plants, laboratories, and the like may be targets for terrorist attacks. Similarly, oil pipelines, power grids,...

Innovators Recognized for "Creating the Future" 2018

The Create the Future Design Contest was launched in 2002 to help stimulate and reward engineering innovation. In the past 16 years, the annual contest has drawn more than 13,000...

3D-Printed Device Produces Nanofiber Meshes

Nanofibers are useful for any application that benefits from a high ratio of surface area to volume, such as solar cells that maximize exposure to sunlight, or fuel cell electrodes that catalyze...

Analysis of Molecules in Liquids on a Chip

Much can be detected in blood or urine — viral illnesses, metabolic disorders, or autoimmune diseases can be diagnosed with laboratory tests, for instance. But such examinations often take a few...

2017 Create the Future Design Contest: Sustainable Technologies Category Winner

Energy Saving Filter for Removal of Heavy Metals from Water Volodymyr Khranovskyy, R. Yakimova, Ivan Shtepliuk, P. Lima de Carvalho, and A. Pinto
Talent...

Ultralight, Scalable, High-Temperature-Resilient Ceramic Nanofiber Sponges

Researchers have made ultralight, highly porous, compressible, and heat-resistant sponge-like materials from nanoscale ceramic fibers. The highly deformable material...

Electrochemical Method for Removing Pollutants from Water

When removing very dilute concentrations of pollutants from water, existing separation methods tend to be energy- and chemical-intensive. A new method was developed that could provide...