Solar Power Cleans Up Water

A team of scientists at the Sandia National Laboratory announced last week that they have developed a method that uses solar power to destroy most organic pollutants found in water. The system can handle pesticides, dioxins, munitions chemicals and industrial solvents, the researchers said. Unlike present systems, which filter out toxins, the new solar-powered system breaks down the organic pollutants to smaller, less harmful components, according to their study.

Described in the journal Science, the system is made up of a long, glass tube onto which a 720-foot parabolic reflector is focused. Inside the tube, the polluted water is mixed with grains of the chemical compound titanium dioxide. When intensified ultraviolet light hits the solution in the tube, the titanium dioxide forms highly reactive molecules known as free radicals, which react with the water and oxygen and break down the organic pollutants into simple acids, carbon dioxide and water.