Research aims to harness solar energy to purify water

A new project in Saudi Arabi -- being spearheaded by IBM and the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) -- seeks to create a water desalination plant that runs off solar energy. The location of the project is significant, since Saudi Arabia is apparently the largest producer of desalinated water.

The plant being built in the city of Al Khafji is intended to provide water for up to 100,000 people, which means a production capacity of about 30,000 cubic meters per day.

The solar technology at the heart of the desalination system are ultra-high concentrator photovoltaics being developed jointly by IBM and KACST. The two are also working on a nanomembrane for filtering salt and toxics out of the water, as part of a process that consumes less energy than traditional desalination. According to IBM, the two most common methods for seawater desalination today are thermal technology and reverse osmosis, both of which have some drawbacks