Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a method to clean water produced by hydraulic fracturing, according to a release.
Water produced as a byproduct of the fracking process is several times more salty than seawater. By using a variation of the standard distillation process, the MIT team was able to successfully produce water clean enough to drink.
In the new process, water below the boiling point is vaporized by direct contact with a gas. The purified vapor is then bubbled through cooler water, causing it to condense.
More information on the process can be found in the journal Water Desalination Report, which has given the MIT purification process its highest rating for treating water produced by fracking.
Credit: Test unit for the humidification-dehumidification cleaning process (Credit: David Castro-Olmedo/MIT)
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