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Freeplay invented a wind up torch & radio a couple of years ago and I think the mechanical power could be converted to create a thin film evaporation process in a freshwater maker. Small device as a required emergency unit in boats. No need for electricity. Can simply be wound up.
Trevor
http://www.ogormans.co.uk/Bayliss.htm
[po, Jan 18 2008]
Lifestraw
http://www.gizmag.com/go/4418/
A half-baked device if ever I saw one, but it works. [DrCurry, Jan 18 2008]
Look ma, no handle.
http://www.greenhom...ter_filters/106608/
[2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jan 19 2008]
[link]
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Do you mean generating electricity for a
sort of mini-still? I'm not sure, but I'd
think there are better ways to do this.
For one, you'd get much more power
from a very small and cheap wind
generator, or even a smallish solar
panel (I would imagine). |
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Also, I wonder if heat-based
evaporation is the most efficient? How
about a system that compresses a
volume of air (which will be moist if
you're at sea) to drive condensation? |
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You don't need electricity at all to purify water, whether from power lines, batteries or wind up devices. |
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The most elegant solution I've seen so far is an oversized drinking straw with a filter in it. For generating larger quantities, though, sunlight is the way to go. If you are looking at a place without sunlight, then I think you'd want a device you could hook up to a bicycle - pedalling a bicycle is much easier than cranking a crank. |
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You could use mechanical power from a Freeplay powerplant to pump water through a reverse osmosis membrane - that would work. |
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Or you could cut out the middle man, technologically speaking, and pump the water through the membrane by hand (and that has been done). |
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(Still reading this as "Wind up Watermelon") |
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A filter won't help if the water is brackish or salt. Solar devices are the way to go, there. And they don't need constant cranking to keep working, either. |
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//A filter won't help if the water is
brackish or salt// No, but a reverse-
osmosis membrane will. It is effectively a
molecular filter. |
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Yes, and water could be pumped through it. That could be made, and may already be. |
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The posted idea, on the other hand, is really a wish. Freeplay makes electricity, but the post mentions mechanical power, which isn't Freeplay at all. What is a "thin film evaporation process", anyhow? <Googles> <goggles> That's a high-tech process using heat or a vacuum. I don't see it working for a hand-held unit. |
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I've seen hand-pumped reverse osmosis
purifiers on TV (so it must be real). I think
the idea is meant to use a Freeplay-style
generator to power an electric purifier (the
penultimate sentence means, I presume,
no need to provide power from an external
electrical source). It's probably doable,
just not very efficient. |
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Actually, you could run the purifier from a
wind generator, and it would still be a
wind up watermaker. |
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You could use mechanical power from the freeplay unit to improve the efficency of a solar still using vacuum ..... |
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//a couple of years ago //
1991. Is that "a couple" after inflation? |
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