We're studying new ways to use and preserve water! Read more: http://t.co/pw9PPWF1kh pic.twitter.com/01kUKXQq1K
— ConocoPhillips (@conocophillips) January 9, 2014
@conocophillips The work of GWSC will only grow in importance, as economic developments keep advancing in Qatar and GCC as a whole.
— RonVillejoConsulting (@RonVillejoPhD) February 17, 2014
A key research area for the center is desalination, a process that transforms salt water into consumable water. A current field pilot project with Qatar University’s chemical engineering department measures the effectiveness of augmenting thermal desalination with membrane distillation to produce fresh water. Thermal desalination uses a heat source to boil water. As the water evaporates salt and minerals are left in the base water while the pure water becomes steam. As the steam cools it forms condensed purified water. Membrane desalination, often referred to as reverse osmosis, incorporates two different approaches. Water is forced through a membrane to filter out salt and minerals, and an electrical current is used to separate salt and other minerals from the water.
There is water throughout the Persian (aka Arabian) Gulf, but relatively little that is fit for drinking. The first king of Saudi Arabia was fully aware that what the new country needed, above all, was drinkable water. The great discovery of oil in the 1930s was a boon, but they still needed that precious resource. In the United Arab Emirates, officials know that the main shortages over the long haul are electricity and water.
So what the Global Water Sustainability Center is doing is crucial indeed.
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