Efficient Water Purification with New Solar Oven

Photo credit: Some rights reserved by Reznicek111 via Flickr

The “solar still” is perhaps the simplest and the most iconic survival “tool” that can be used to treat water for drinking without the use of other more complicated technology. In fact, solar stills can be made using very crude materials, as long as it can hold condensed water that the sun has evaporated.

Now, upgrading a solar still may not be necessary, but the basic idea of using sunlight to purify water can surely be sprinkled with more innovation. That is what was proven through this new invention that tries to use the same principle, but enhances it, while making it a lot easier for users to collect purified water.

Eliodomestico is the name of the salt water purifying invention created by Gabriele Diamanti. It is classified as a solar oven, but it looks more like a large cooking pot. Just like other innovative water purifiers, it does not have any complex working components, nor does it expend active energy. It simply uses sunlight passively to purify salt water.

The directions for using the solar oven are simple. Just fill it with salty or sea water, tighten the cap, and leave it where there is adequate sunlight. As hours pass during the day, the temperature and pressure inside the oven rises. The steam produced is pushed to a pipe at the bottom of the oven, and then condensed as fresh drinking water. It has been claimed that his Eliodomestico is capable of producing 5 liters of drinking water in a single day.

According to this article, the inspiration that helped Diamanti come up with the idea was his experience in visiting friends in third world countries who are members of NGOs. He thought of an easy solution that would remove the problem of finding drinking water in remote areas and in lands suffering from droughts. Sunlight has been widely used for purifying water before, but this invention steps it up by actually making the process easier and more efficient than what a solar still could normally do in these areas.

Unfortunately, though there is already a short presentation about the invention online, the article also says that the project is still in development. Nevertheless, the idea is described as “open source”, which means that the plans can be freely given to anyone who wishes to build the solar oven. In fact, he also sets his hopes in delivering the plans to local craftsmen in remote areas. His basic idea could then be picked up by others for modification, potentially increasing its usage efficiency over time.

The idea that it is an “open source” project piques interest. His design is basically meant to start with an initial idea, with the people using the “blueprint” to actually build the invention themselves. They do not need to buy a finished product for it, and the users can even modify the finished product, or do some upgrades with it if it deemed necessary. That also means there could be a different version of the Eliodomestico depending on the needs of people in certain areas around the world.

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Christian Crisostomo (250 Posts)

Christian Crisostomo is just your average tech geek that loves to see man's newest and most recent technological exploits. He holds great interest in the potentials of green technology, and is enthusiastic about the continuous development of environment-friendly alternative energy.

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