Water Treatment
Water is rapidly becoming a scarce resource. While roughly 71% of the planet’s surface is covered by water, roughly 0.4% of the water is accessible fresh water. That is a minuscule amount to nourish, power, and industrially supply an 8 billion global population.
And while population growth is putting a strain on the global water supply, climate change is exacerbating the problem. Water scarcity in increasingly drought-stricken areas is just as problematic as continual flooding, and subsequent water contamination, in urban and rural areas.
Reusing and recycling our existing water supplies through more efficient wastewater treatment additives and low-toxicity, naturally derived alternatives is just one such solution to this problem. Novel water extraction technologies and improving the efficiency of water transport, drag reduction, and leakage could all dramatically improve water scarcity and quality issues.