Watercone - Ingenious Way To Turn Salt Water Into Fresh Water

Originally posted by nerbot

Just a thought..........volume of 80cm diameter x 50cm high cone = 83809 cubic cm.
Volume of 80cm square x 50cm high pyramid = 106666 cubic centimetres.

But I suppose the cone design is for aerodinamical reason so the cone could stand the wind of 55km/hr.

- It must produce enough water for one child (1.5 litres )
- Its' size must be compact enough for transportation and fit nicely to container pallets.
- It must stand the wind flow.

Unless you want it bigger size for more water production which means heavier design that won't get blown away by wind. Anyway it is hard to manufacture a bigger size since it is limitation on plastic forming technology. Or else it is extremely expensive.

Read the website, it has pictures and informations.



And my question is how they manufacture this watercone using injection blow moulding machine.

Any thought?


[edit on 15-8-2007 by Cibai]

OMG LOL where can I one.

seriously, even though I have drinking water id love one of these

they would be very useful for small local fishermen in case they get stranded in the ocean, put floaters at the base of the cone and tie it to a piece of rope.

no worries about dehydration.

Originally posted by a1ex
they would be very useful for small local fishermen in case they get stranded in the ocean, put floaters at the base of the cone and tie it to a piece of rope.

no worries about dehydration.

Nothing new at all

This is quite often supplied with life rafts, usually gets attached by a length of rope and drifts a few feet out so as to get as much sun as possable this one costs £130 - bit much if you ask me

Step by steps for emergency solar still

The first "conventional" solar still plant was built in 1872 by the Swedish engineer Charles Wilson in the mining community of Las Salinas in what is now northern Chile (Region II). This still was a large basin-type still used for supplying fresh water using brackish feedwater to a nitrate mining community. The plant used wooden bays which had blackened bottoms using logwood dye and alum. The total area of the distillation plant was 4,700 square meters. On a typical summer day this plant produced 4.9 kg of distilled water per square meter of still surface, or more than 23,000 liters per day. This first stills plant was in operation for 40 years!

Although I seriously doubt this is 'the first' but a quick google didn't throw up any ancient ones.

[edit on 16/8/2007 by Now_Then]

So....I just had a reply from Stephan Augustin from the watercone company and he answers my question: why not make it pyramid shaped?, by saying it is a manufacturing problem for the materials they are using and has risks of contamination in the tight internal edges..

I wonder if a compromise of a soft-sided pyramid would work? probably too late now the machines are "tooled".

One very interesting thing I found out about all this.....;if the source water is contaminated with a liquid that is lighter than water (petrol etc) could these collectors be used to help clear up and contain (by creating a floating barrier of them) spills at sea by tankers, damaged boats and ships?

Also, for anyone who wants one of these....the price is 99 Euros each! Of course there is a discount if you buy in quantity that goes down to only 85 Euros when you buy 10,001 or more.

Nice idea and I'm sure it will be successful if people/governments etc will be happy paying the price.

One very interesting thing I found out about all this.....;if the source water is contaminated with a liquid that is lighter than water (petrol etc) could these collectors be used to help clear up and contain (by creating a floating barrier of them) spills at sea by tankers, damaged boats and ships?

Interesting question, I think if this would be the intent (to clear up a petrol spill) the cone's innner core would have to be coated with Teflon in order to ease the collection process.

A case study would be but i believe the company does not sell single units....where is Ebay when you need it?

[bad humor switch on]
Are there enough ATS members to buy 10,000 units? we get the 85 euros discount ....but WAIT! if you call within the next 10 minutes well give you a jug of contaminated water FREE..tha'st right free! so call operators are standing by......
[bad humor switch off]

So it's an unpowered water distiller?

Actually, I see now it's not. It's just an evaporator.
If there's any chemicals that evaporate with/before water, it'll get into your drinking water. It won't kill dangerous bacteria, and it gives it a nice, warm, wet place for them to multiply.

In short, I wouldn't use that if I didn't have to. It doesn't seem safe.

[edit on 18-8-2007 by Johnmike]

Originally posted by nerbot
One very interesting thing I found out about all this.....;if the source water is contaminated with a liquid that is lighter than water (petrol etc) could these collectors be used to help clear up and contain (by creating a floating barrier of them) spills at sea by tankers, damaged boats and ships?

It depends on the temperature a particular material will evaporate at. Although, I'm sure petrol would evaporate before water will. In that case, you'd have little cones full of heated petroleum vapour, as well as the petrol itself accumulating. Doesn't sound like something I'd be too keen to handle...

I think it's a generally fine idea, but it might be better collapsible - that way you could have a lifetime supply of the things in a crate.

I'd love to have a dozen or so of the things for a sea voyage. It would make living on a boat longterm that much more feasible (without having to rely on batteries, desalination filters, etc.).

Thanks for posting that, I hadn't heard of the company or their efforts before.

www.watercone.com...


Above link refers to:

The Watercone® has won the "Design Award of the Federal Republic of Germany 2004" with a recognition in Frankfurt, Germany on Friday 27th of August 2004.

www.watercone.com...
www.watercone.com...

Also:
Good Design Award 2003 Japan, Tokyo
IF Award Winner

Originally posted by a1ex
Are there enough ATS members to buy 10,000 units?

we get the 85 euros discount

I never said there was an 85 Euro discount.....I said that the price goes down "TO" 85 Euros for 10,001 units or more.

Sorry dude.

Originally posted by stumason
It depends on the temperature a particular material will evaporate at. Although, I'm sure petrol would evaporate before water will. In that case, you'd have little cones full of heated petroleum vapour, as well as the petrol itself accumulating. Doesn't sound like something I'd be too keen to handle...

You could be right about "kaboom!"...

Maybe something for future tech, eh.

I thought of that when I was 9 years old not really new and many people could figure that out in time I guess.

Originally posted by The time lord
I thought of that when I was 9 years old not really new and many people could figure that out in time I guess.

The idea may not be that new (been around for decades), but providing people with a ready made, easy solution, rather than doing it yourself A-team style is the ingenious thing about it.