Dr. Jose Antonio Lechuga Andrade, former director of the School of Chemical Engineering of the Autonomous University of Yucatan UADY, is originally from Mérida Yucatán and after 6 long years he finally managed to get the patent for his invention from national agencies in the United States.
His project consists in a system that desalinates seawater and turns it into drinking water. These patents granted by the Mexican Institute of Intellectual Property (IMPI) and the United States Patent Office will be valid for 20 years.
The system works with centrifugal reverse osmosis featuring “Dean Vortices” that delimit the seawater and convert it into drinking water. This procedure results in a non-expensive process that saves electricity as well as having a low impact to the environment, since it requires up to 80% less electrical energy, which exceeds similar systems that have been created in European countries, it even has been compared with methods made in Israel and other countries in the Middle East.
Doctor Lechuga says that, in this system. the feedwater is pre-treated in order to eliminate the boron that seawater contains, among other chemicals, which the World Health Organization has declared dangerous for human’s health.
Another advantage is the production cost, since this system allows a systematic cleaning of the membranes, different from other systems that have to be cleaned up manually.
Once the desalination process is completed, the water that is left over is returned to the sea, avoiding a negative impact on the flora and fauna of the oceans.
Source: laverdadnoticias.com