Watercone-The water cone is a device that can be used to purify salt water (Ocean) and /or brackish water via Solar distillation. Brackish water is water that is a mixture of fresh water and salt water. The Watercone was invented in Germany by a man by the name of Stephan Augstin. The invention is simple, yet very effective. it consists of a clear plastic cone (100% recyclable), and a black basin for holding the salt/brackish water (100% recycled Poly Carbonate).

How?

The cone floats inside the black basin forming an air tight seal which allows Solar radiation to heat the air and water inside shown in figure 1. The top of the cone has a cap similar to that of a pop bottle insuring that the water is not lost to the atmosphere. The evaporated water condenses on the side of the cone and trickles down to the trough at the cone's base; shown in figure 2. Finally the cone's cap can be unscrewed and the clean water drained into a container for drinking. To see more on the Watercone click here watercone.


Figure 1 Watercone.jpg Figure 2 Watercone2.jpg

Application

The Watercone would obviously work best in warm sunny conditions. When looking at a map that displays world Poverty levels it can been seen that the highest levels of poverty are in Africa. Click here for the map I used map. The areas shown in darkest red are extreme poverty areas, most of which are in tropical to sub tropical regions. Which means they receive a large amount of solar radiation. Therefore the Watercone would probably work well in these areas. The Watercone page above states

There are at least 50 sunny, developing countries worldwide with a significant amount of sea- or coastline. Many from their populations, hundreds of millions, live in nearest proximity to water but cannot drink it or use it for agriculture, because it is saltwater. Large families, hamlets, villages could all experience dramatically improved quality of life starting from as little as a dozen Watercones set up close by the sea.

Costs and Production

The Watercone is made from polycarbonate, UV protected on the outside and FDA approved inside.  The Watercone is as simple as it comes, a plastic cone and basin. One needs little to no academic knowledge to understand how the cone works. The Watercone retails for about $69. With the price of a bottle of water being $.50 the Watercone would pay for itself in about 5 months. (updated by MAGE-Watermanagement North America, Inc, December 2010)

Resources

  • Information from www.thewatercone.com may be be ported to appropedia.


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