To combat the threat of water scarcity in the Middle East, a team of researchers led by Dr. Lourdes Vega has investigated nanotechnology for water treatment and desalination purposes.

The ten countries most threatened by water scarcity are concentrated in the Middle East, including the United Arab Emirates. To overcome the lack of sufficient fresh water, much of the water provided to the population is desalinated, with salt water treated to remove the salt and other impurities. This usually involves polymer-based membranes through which the water is run to catch the contaminants, but this isn’t the most efficient process and requires a lot of energy.

A team of researchers led by Dr. Lourdes Vega, Professor of Chemical Engineering at Khalifa University and Director of the Research and Innovation Center on CO2 and H2 (RICH) and Dr. Daniel Bahamon, Research Scientist at the RICH Center, and Dr. Euon Seon Cho, Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at KAIST, has investigated nanotechnology for water treatment purposes. They developed a graphene-based nanostructured membrane and analyzed its ability to allow water to permeate through and trap dissolved particles to efficiently clean the water.

Read more at: https://www.ku.ac.ae/overcoming-water-scarcity-with-nanotechnology-at-khalifa-university