Water purification process named ‘Technology Idol of the Year’

The humidification-dehumidification (HDH) carrier gas extraction process developed by Prakash Narayan and colleagues in Department of Mechanical Engineering Professor John H. Lienhard’s research group has just been named the Water Technology Idol of the Year by Global Water Intelligence (GWI) and International Desalination Association (IDA) at the 2013 Global Water Summit in Seville, Spain. The system was developed and tested over a five-year period, with funding and collaboration from Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM). The system is a thermodynamically balanced, multi-stage evaporative design that incorporates novel dehumidification technology for a low-cost, compact, and easy to maintain solution. It is especially useful in developing countries and for hypersaline water from oil and gas production. The carrier gas extraction (CGE) technology is being commercialized by Gradiant Corporation, founded by MIT alumni, focused on oil and gas and other industrial water treatment applications. The award was conferred for “an early stage technology that could change the future of the water market.”