A Korean research team has just found the “holy grail” of water desalination

The Holy Grail can turn salt water into drinkable water finally be upon us

new Report from Interesting geometry It seems to indicate that this could be the case — details of a new nanofiber membrane, developed by Yunchul Woo and his team at the Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology, that appears to be “long-term stable” for desalination. This can be done “in minutes,” the report says.

Membranes have been used in the past, but it is often a challenge to keep them dry for long periods of time. When wet, the filtration properties become ineffective and large amounts of salt can pass through.

Woo’s team created a membrane “made of nanofibers synthesized into a 3D hierarchical structure” using a technique called “electro spinning”. This new membrane is said to be highly water-resistant.

The water is heated on one side and the water vapor is allowed to pass through the membrane, then it is condensed on the other side. This process is called membrane distillation.

“Because the salt particles do not convert to the gaseous state, they are left on one side of the membrane, giving highly purified water on the other side,” the report says.

It also indicates that the researchers used silica gel in the membrane manufacturing process.

When testing the technology for 30 days continuously, they found that the membrane filtered with 99.9% salt without problems with hydration.

Desalination is the obvious solution to the global issue that over 785 million people lack access to clean drinking water. Until now, scientists have not been able to discover a quick and cost-effective way to convert salt water into drinkable water.

The report notes that fresh water represents only 2.5% of the total water available on Earth.