Convert sea water into drinking water using windmills is not new. In most commercial systems available, the mill produces electricity that is stored in batteries. When water is needed, a high pressure pump is activated to remove salt from water by a process called reverse osmosis. It works, but turning wind into electricity, storing and then after running a pump, all this means a lot of energy and the batteries are very expensive.
Students from the Technological University of Delft in the Netherlands are improving the process making it more elegant and efficient. In its windmill version the wind makes the pup work to purify the water, then this water is stored instead of storing electricity, this is much cheaper and more efficient.
The chosen windmill is used to irrigate crops. These mills rotate very slowly and are very robust. In a normal working day between 5 and 10 cubic meters of fresh water can be purified. This is sufficient drinking water for approximately 500 people.
The first prototype was installed in a province near the university, and is expected to be tested it with sea water by the end of the month.
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