Harnessing Gravity for Drinking Cleaner Water?

03 Dec. 2018

MSTF Media reports:

In the session themed ‘Water and Wastewater: Challenges and Solutions’, scientists presented papers on their findings.

Adel Sharif, Chair in Water Engineering and Process Innovation, University of Surrey was excited to share his views on new trends in water management, “STEP is a brilliant idea. I am very pleased to be here. Addressing critical issues of water, energy, health and food is very important to the world and especially to the region as it is critical,” said Sharif, after speaking in the panel.

Today, governments are concerned with the sustainable supply of water as a critical step towards sustainable development. “The major source we are certain about is the sea. Finding a cheaper way for producing clean water from the sea would be the ultimate solution,” said Adel Sharif. That’s what exactly Sharif and his team are working on at the University of Surrey.

“We are working on how to make desalinated sea water more energy efficient and cheaper in terms of capital and energy cost. For obvious reasons, we cannot rely on fossil fuel because of its challenges. Renewable sources also have some constraints in terms of cost, availability and reliability; we turned to ultimate source of energy that has very little or no constraints geographically or climatically and that is GRAVITY,” pointed out the scientist.

Employing gravity in producing clean water and power could revolutionize the water industry. Sharif says it takes time and effort, but it’s “not impossible”.

“If you asked a human a few yew years ago about mobile technology, he would have labeled it as magic. If you were to describe a plane a few 100 years ago they would have said the same thing – magic. So man has always made things possible that was not available in the previous generations. So do not be surprised if we are able to harness gravity for power generation. Believe it would be less complex than iPhone and airplane. This would be my contribution to the young and future generation,” he said.

Sharif would like to bring it to the world as soon as they get enough support to make it happening as of now the technical details are confidential.

He hailed Mustafa Science and Technology Foundation and Sultan Qaboos University for organizing STEP and providing a chance for scientists from the Islamic world to come together and network for a better scientific future.