Access to clean water is something that many of us take for granted, but it’s a serious problem across much of the world. Now researchers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Canberra have tested a new method for sterilizing water using hot bubbles of carbon dioxide, which they’ve found to be both effective and efficient.
In the new method, CO2 gas is first heated to a set temperature, then piped into a tank of wastewater. As these hot bubbles rise up through the water, they transfer heat to the water around them, and the hot surface layer of the bubbles is enough to kill bacteria and viruses in the liquid.
The team behind this method say it has several benefits over existing water purification techniques. Since it takes less energy to heat gas than to boil liquids, the method is more energy efficient. It’s also less potentially harmful than the chemical method like adding chlorine. And finally, carbon dioxide is a common by-product of industry, so finding uses for it is particularly handy.
