Water filtration using nanotechnology bringing more efficiency to both space and ground-based water use
Providing enough drinking water for astronauts in space is far from being easy: water is heavy and sending it to the Space Station is costly. Humans on Earth consume as much as 50 litres of water each day, but in space that figure drops dramatically. Usually an astronaut in space uses around 3 litres of water per day altogether for drinking, hygiene and cleaning. The ESA-sponsored ISS water recovery investigation has helped the Aquaporin Space Alliance (ASA) and its parent company Aquaporin A/S to further commercialise the Aquaporin technology for ground-based applications. This and other Aquaporin activities have resulted in 7 additional patents and consideration in multiple scientific journals. Their recently developed production facility will be used to launch several more products into the advanced water treatment, food and beverage, and desalination markets.