Saltwater Intrusion: A Composite Desalination Approach

Inspiration

When we were originally asked to come together to work on this challenge, we neither knew each other nor anything about saltwater intrusion. But once we started doing some research into what this problem entailed, we realized just what a fascinating issue this actually was. Our motivation was definitely that none of us had ever worked on a project like this before, where we could be a part of inventing a transformative solution that would benefit our community directly.

What it does

On the technical side, graphene is a layer of carbons one atom thick and as strong as steel that can filter out contaminants in water very effectively. However, the other 3% still has to be accounted for and we addressed it using a much smaller scale of distillation. Distillation is used all over the world as a way to drink seawater, by first evaporating the water, leaving all particles, namely salt, behind. The water vapor is then condensed by putting the gas in a lower temperature, and the now liquid water comes out free of contaminants, but also healthy minerals. The salt left in the tank is then either dumped from a moveable cartridge at the bottom of the tank or flushed out by an insolvable solution such as alcohol, and directed into another tank storing that salt. As part of our zero-waste initiative, the salt is resold for profit. This second process takes out at least 98.5% of all remaining particles in the 3% salty water. Our solution is small compared to a distillation plant, about the size of washing machine, and very scale-able. Each system can produce 14,000 gallons of water a day by filtering out the salt from the adulterated freshwater aquifer, which is needed to water the plants through regular irrigation methods. While each farm may need more than one system to fully cover its land, the systems are reasonably priced as to ensure that every farmer has enough water without being strained for money.

Challenges I ran into

The biggest challenges we faced came from us not being experts in this field. Many of the solutions that are related are either too energy expensive or work on a smaller scale, so we had to find a solution even though we were not particularly versed in this field. Another challenge we faced was not knowing how effective our solution is with no way to test it out. We had to do extensive research on case studies instead in order to form an informed hypothesis so that once we have access to some experts, we may be able to actually prototype. Lastly, we have no benchmark of market valuation or production cost. We based our financials on how we believe the market to look like such as proportionally scaling down a distillation plant's operational costs, but we have no way of knowing how accurate it is without knowing some underlying industry facts. Of course, there is also the challenge of being remote and having to meet virtually, but the team was all present for the most part and we made the best of the situation.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

We felt proud just to have something to turn in. We worked really hard on crafting a solution to a very real problem with very little information and from the people that are more versed in this than us, we have heard that this solution could actually work, which is beyond exciting. I personally am proud just to have the opportunity to be a part of something like this, and as something I can see myself continue working on in the future.

What I learned

Our experience working on this was, thankfully, a very positive one. We learned a lot from each other as some of our teammates were better at finance and economics, others design, and others being good researchers. We were also pleasantly surprised at how much we were able to understand about this problem, therefore we learned that it is not necessary to be an expert in a field in order to solve a specific issue in it. In fact, sometimes a polar opposite perspective is very, very valuable. Also, we would have preferred working together face to face, but we realized that it did not have as large an impact on our ability to find a solution as we once thought it would be.

What's next for Saltwater Intrusion: A Composite Approach

This is more comprehensively covered in the attached presentation.