Saturday Engineering for Everyone is an open and free lecture series aimed at non-engineers of all backgrounds who are interested in learning about engineering. In order to protect the health and safety of the community during the pandemic, all sessions will be conducted virtually on Zoom.
Speaker:
Illinois ECE Professor Jont Allen
Overview:
Prof. Allen is proposing an innovative approach to desalination that uses thermodynamics to separate ocean-water into potable water and salt.
The basic concept of his proposal is to take cold ocean water, and using sunlight as the sole power source, separate the pure water from the salt by evaporation. Potable water is essential for growing plants (trees, grass, food, etc.) on a massive scale. Given sufficient plant life, the CO2 will be naturally absorbed. Given enough water, plants will grow, making this is a feasible long-term desalination solution. But it will take at least several decades before it can be functional. In the meantime, we need to directly deal with reducing CO2 in the ocean, where it is presently causing the greatest damage to the environment.
Registration:
Participants must have an authenticated Zoom account (free) to register and log in to the lecture. After you register you will receive an email with the Zoom link for the session.
