Bug power makes salt water sweet

10:43 24 August 2009 by Ewen Callaway

It's not often that bacteria make water more drinkable, but a new microbial desalination cell does precisely that. The proof-of-principle system removed 90 per cent of the salt from a seawater-like solution.

"We just wanted to show that it was possible," says Bruce Logan, an electrical engineer at Pennsylvania State University in University Park who helped make the prototype. "We hope that there will be more research going into this and it could lead to a commercial technology," he adds.