Man, if there's two things you don't have enough of when you're deployed in the desert and insurgents keep blowing up your fuel runs, it's beer and Wii. Wait no, it's diesel and water. Luckily researchers have devised a way for soldiers to turn one into the other.
The average soldier needs about seven gallons of water a day -- for drinking, but also for cooking and bathing and so forth. This new tech could make that amount from burning about seven gallons of diesel fuel. Some of the water would even be directly drinkable, and 65 to 85 percent of it would be usable for something.
Now they just have to make diesel out of sand! Kidding aside, the supply of diesel still needs to be addressed - this technology doesn't cover that problem. Here's a little more about it:
Researchers from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have began to develop a new process that could supply drinkable water to U.S. soldiers without putting military personnel at risk.
Using the fuel that the military burns in Humvees, generators and tanks could provide additional water for soldiers since fuel oxidizes and produces carbon dioxide and water after combustion. According to DeBusk, one gallon of diesel fuel should create one gallon of water, but not all of this water is usable. But with capillary condensation, DeBusk figures she can recover 65 to 85 percent of this water for military use.
The system works by using a hollow steel tube with porous walls, where liquid water is drawn from the outside of the tube. This should allow more water to be condensed from the exhaust that travels through the tube.
The Oak Ridge National Laboratory plans to develop this system over the next couple of years, and estimate that the cost will be about $6 million.
"Now, more than ever, the illusions of division threaten our very existence. We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another as if we were one single tribe.” -King T'Challa, Black Panther
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