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Wave powered ‘ducks’ desalinate seawater
"One unit should be able to produce around 2000 cubic metres a day. That's enough to supply water for more than 20,000 people."
- Stephen Salter, duck designer
Edinburgh, UK - Ocean waves could provide an energy-efficient way to desalinate seawater, say UK researchers. While conventional purification plants have high energy demands, the rocking motion of floating buoys could be used to drive a pump system for desalination.
Stephen Salter at Edinburgh University, UK, first designed a device to generate electricity from wave power in the 1970s. It was dubbed the 'Edinburgh Duck' because buoyant cylinders on one side resembled a beak, while the other, tethered end bobbed up and down as it rode the waves.
The "desalinating ducks" convert wave energy into pressure changes that aid the collection of pure water as steam from seawater.