Curiosity
save some water drink your sweat: machine turns sweat Into Drinking Water
UNICEF and Gothia Cup have together developed the world’s first sweat machine: A machine that extracts sweat from clothes, purifies it and transforms it into water. The goal is to raise awareness about the lack of clean water in the world, with the main purpose of raising money for water purification tablets for children. Participants and visitors of Gothia Cup are challenged to contribute with their sweaty clothes – and dare to drink a glass of sweat.
It is a sad fact that nearly 780 million people across the globe lack clean drinking water. That’s why we are thankful for scientists like Andreas Hammar who developed the “Sweat Machine.” What it does, is take our sweaty clothing and extract the liquid from them. It then purifies the water for drinking through spinning, heating, and filtering, reports NPR.
This machine is cheaper to build than previous machines that use a similar process. Though it only produces about 10 ml. from the average person’s sweaty t-shirt, it is a step in the right direction to solving this world crisis.
“”It uses a technique called membrane distillation,” said Hammar, “We use a substance that’s a bit like Goretex that only lets steam through but keeps bacteria, salts, clothing fibres and other substances out.”
Coming on the heels of an announcement that an invention of using urine to charge a cell phone is now possible, UNICEF has experienced less of a shock factor with this announcement. Perhaps that is good news for the machine, as many would rather drink sweat than urinate on their cell phones.
“They have something similar on the [International] Space Station to treat astronaut’s urine – but our machine was cheaper to build. The amount of water it produces depends on how sweaty the person is – but one person’s T-shirt typically produces 10ml [0.3oz], roughly a mouthful.”
In displays of the machine, they have put an exercise bike alongside for adequate sweat production. People have been lining up to try it out, and drink their own sweat. It seems to have positive reviews so far, and with the heat index as high as it has been lately there isn’t a better time to test it out.
On The Web:
Thirsty? ‘Sweat Machine’ Turns Perspiration Into Drinking Water
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/07/19/203597544/sweat-machine-turns-persperation-into-drinking-water
Unicef’s ‘sweat machine’ turns perspiration into drinkable water
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/unicefs-sweat-machine-turns-perspiration-into-drinkable-water-8720670.html
