Solar-Powered Water Purifying System Designed for Emergency Services

摘要

A problem after any natural disaster is how to provide safe, fresh water when both the local water system and the local roads are disrupted. The team of Brad Carlson, David Squires and Mike Strizki, doing business as The Essential Element (theessentialelement.com), has an answer: a mobile, solar-powered water purifying system.rnThe Hydra purification plant is 16 feet (4.9 m) long and 7 feet (2.1 m) wide, so it can be hauled in a standard truck-mounted container or dropped in by helicopter. The onboard 2.88-kilowatt (kW) photovoltaic (PV) array and 300 amp-hour battery pack drive a reverse-osmosis filter to sanitize water or elec-trolyze it into storable hydrogen and medical-grade oxygen. The gases can run back through an onboard fuel cell to power water purification through the night. Connected to an external PV array of up to 25 kW, the system can produce up to 23,000 gallons (87,000 liters) of water daily. The system can also generate up to 35 kW of electric power, in DC or AC modes, to power a medical clinic.