Extracting Freshwater From Saltwater: Unpacking Desalination With Mark Holtzapple
Finding Genius Podcast
Richard Jacobs
4.4 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 4 October 2022
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Returning to the podcast to discuss water desalination is Mark Holtzapple. Mark is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University where he researches technologies that improve sustainability.
With close to 30 years of experience as a researcher, Mark is constantly finding new ways to turn waste into useful products. So what's his take on obtaining fresh water from saltwater?
In this episode, you will learn about:
- What desalination is, and how Mark got started working with it.
- Techniques used to desalinate water, and how they have evolved over the years.
- How reverse osmosis contributes to water desalination.
- What vapor compression technology is, and why this may be the future of energy-efficient water desalination.
Imagine a world where freshwater is as plentiful as seawater… With the work that researchers like Mark Holtzapple are doing, this idea may be more realistic than you may think!
To find out more about Mark Holtzapple and his work, you can visit gfrc.tamu.edu.
Episode also available on Apple Podcast: http://apple.co/30PvU9C
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Before we begin, a note from our sponsor. |
| 0:02.4 | I'm Richard Jacobs, executive director of the non-profit |
| 0:05.4 | Finding Genius Foundation, and host of the Finding Genius |
| 0:08.0 | podcast. |
| 0:08.9 | In late 2016, I was rear-ended at 65 miles an hour by a truck |
| 0:13.2 | on the highway, which sent me off-road into a ditch. |
| 0:17.0 | The impact of the collision gave me a concussion |
| 0:19.3 | and other injuries. |
| 0:20.6 | At the hospital, a CT scan showed that I had thyroid nodules, |
| 0:24.0 | which turned out to be cancer. |
| 0:25.6 | It was then, when I had a biopsy, my neck, |
| 0:27.9 | that I realized, even if I was a million there, |
| 0:30.4 | I wouldn't want a second or a third biopsy due to the pain |
| 0:33.1 | and the invasiveness of it. |
| 0:34.3 | And appointments at that time, for thyroid experts, |
| 0:36.6 | were three to six months out. |
| 0:38.4 | And I was worried about dying now, even if that was irrational. |
| 0:41.8 | So because of this, I've decided to raise money |
| 0:44.1 | to conduct a literature review on steroids |
| 0:47.1 | on the causes of anxiety and depression, |
| 0:49.6 | a condition that affects well over 50 million people |
| 0:52.0 | in the United States and hundreds of millions worldwide. |
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