Anammox bacteria generate energy from wastewater while taking a breath

Jun 29, 2020

A new finding suggests that anammox bacteria alone could be used for ammonium removal in wastewater treatment, while also producing energy-rich hydrogen gas.

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Sea skaters are a super source of inspiration

May 17, 2020

Prof. Himanshu Mishra is part of a multi-disciplinary team at KAUST that investigated the characteristics of Halobates. Inspired by the mushroom-shaped hairs of this insect, his team at the Interfacial Lab aims to explore how this new finding could be further applied in the area of water desalination.

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Moisture-sucking gels give solar panels the chills

May 12, 2020

Prof Peng Wang and his postdoc Renyuan Li have produced a proof-of-concept device that can harvest water vapor and use it to cool solar cells, which will improve their efficiency.

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Bursting bubbles clear the way for desalination

Feb 19, 2020

Professor NorEddine Ghaffour and Mohanned Al Ghamdi have harnessed the physical and chemical action of carbon dioxide as a fast and environmentally friendly way of cleaning filters used in water desalination.

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Flushing nitrogen from seawater-based toilets

Feb 03, 2020

Prof. Pascal Saikaly and his postdoc Muhammad Ali and the team have identified a salt-tolerant bacterium cultured from the Red Sea, which can remove nitrogen from salty wastewater. Their work could potentially increase the use of saltwater for toilet flushing, thereby easing up pressure on desalination and freshwater resources.

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Chlorine could increase antimicrobial resistance

Jan 08, 2020

In this latest article from the KAUST Discovery, Prof. Peiying Hong with David Mantilla-Calderon, postdoc, and Nicolas Augsburger, a Ph.D. student challenges the safety of using chlorine as a final disinfection step for wastewater.

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Quantum destabilization of a water sandwich

Sep 19, 2019

Prof. Himanshu Mishra and his team have revealed new information about what happens when a thin water layer becomes sandwiched between two hydrophobic surfaces.

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The movers and shakers of wastewater treatment

Sep 10, 2019

The latest study from Prof. Pascal's group provides relevant baseline data about AGS systems while also addressing important questions about community composition in microbial ecology to optimize its performance in the future.

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Fair compare of desalination puts heat on energy sources

Aug 28, 2019

Muhammad Wakil Shahzad, Muhammad Burhan and Kim Choon Ng have demonstrated a simple thermodynamic approach that produces a common platform for comparison of energy efficiency uses a standard universal performance ratio that offers a fairer comparison between seawater desalination methods.

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Solar power with a free side of drinking water

Jul 11, 2019

Prof. Peng Wang and his Ph.D. student Wenbin Wang have developed a device that will allow them to generate clean drinking water while generating electricity using solar panels.

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Bionic catalysts to produce clean energy

Jul 02, 2019

Professor Pascal Saikaly and his former postdoc Shafeer Kalathil are mixing microbes with carbon nanomaterials to create a biohybrid material that can outperform expensive metal-based analogs while also being environmentally friendly.

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Insects inspire greener, cheaper membranes for desalination

Jul 01, 2019

Professor Himanshu Mishra, postdoc Ratul Das and research scientist Sankara Arunachalam were inspired by insects to develop a membrane from nonhydrophobic materials for membrane distillation.

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Casting a net for a sustainable water network

Jun 19, 2019

Prof. Hans Vrouwenvelder discussed in this article how WDRC focuses on three flagship research themes: greener desalination, water security, and waste to resource to transform the water cycle.

It also highlights the partnership between WDRC and The Red Sea Development Company by launching the 'Brains for Brine Challenge', a call for fresh ideas to tackle the challenge of managing brine in an environmentally sustainable manner.

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A leap forward in estimating crop water use

May 07, 2019

High-resolution imaging data collected by small satellites could transform how we monitor freshwater use in agriculture.

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Solar-powered cup brews better brine treatments

Apr 07, 2019

Prof. Peng Wang and his team developed a solar photothermal distillation device which could evaporate water with 90% energy efficiency. It could also concentrate the brine effectively and dramatically reduce waste from the desalination process.

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