National Institute of Technology Karnataka has tech to desalinate water
Mangaluru: At a time when water shortage and drought have made people think of methods to convert saline water into drinking water, here is an academic who not only had such a dream several years ago but is toiling from dawn to dusk to make his dream come true.
When BARC’s desalination project is in the news off late and is being appreciated even by the Prime Minister, a similar project is being conducted at the Department of Chemistry, National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK) Surathkal by Arun M. Isloor.
Arun, an associate professor of Chemistry is working on polymer membranes that will desalinate water. This effort might turn to be a blessing to the common man as saline water can be used for drinking purpose economically.
“We are working on membranes that will desalinate water. We are fabricating Nano porus polymeric membranes to be used for this process of desalination. We have already achieved 70 per cent success in this and are sure of further success,” Arun told Deccan Chronicle.
When Arun was a Ph.D student at Mangalore University in 1999, he visited Mumbai for his cousin’s wedding and saw waste water flowing away in storm water drains at Mumbai and always wanted to work on a project to make saline water and water with heavy metals potable.
He worked on similar project at the world famous Technion Israel institute of Technology and was part of the team that succeeded in developing a membrane for desalination.
After returning to Mangaluru, he continued his effort. “Today we are facing an acute shortage of water. In future the problem could worsen. We need low cost technology to convert saline water around us at a cheaper rate. Our aim is to get a desalination system with minimum energy,” he said.
Already Mr Arun and his team of students have developed membranes for this and succeeded in achieving 70 per cent success. The team is working hard to increase the rate of success.
Saline water which flows through the membrane sheds about 70 per cent salinity. If a similar flow is repeated, water would be potable.
The present water purifiers need more energy to purify water using Reverse Osmosis (RO) technology. But once Arun and his team achieve their goal, water can be desalinated without use of much energy.
“One tenth of the present energy would be enough to desalinate water and make it ready to drink. Brackish water can be easily desalinated using this technology,” he added.
The team is also working on using advanced hollow fiber membranes. To ensure long life of the membrane, the team is also developing an anti fouling material which has seen about 90 per cent success.
