The C4CW Launch

2010-12-06

[20 September 2010] Today, CNMM launched major volunteer computing project with World Community Grid, a philanthropic initiative of IBM, in order to understand the molecular-scale processes that could produce more efficient water filters for clean water and desalination. This research may help satisfy increasing demand worldwide for drinking water.

 

Scientists at CNMM have been investigating new approaches to efficient low-cost water filtering. One promising approach involves the use of carbon nanotubes, which can effectively keep many types of unwanted organic molecules from passing through them. Under certain conditions, nanotubes may even stop salt dissolved in water.

 

But normally in filter design, there is a tradeoff between small pore size and efficiency.

Getting liquids to pass through the extremely small pores of nanotubes ought to require the application of very high pressure. However, almost five years ago, a team of researchers at the University of Kentucky discovered that water can flow through nanotubes around 10,000 times more easily than expected. It is as if normal friction between the water molecules and the nanotubes walls disappears.

 

The large scale computer simulations being carried out with the help of IBM’s World Community Grid, which involve distribution of computing tasks to the PCs and laptops of volunteers around the world, will allow CNMM researchers to reveal more clearly the key physical attributes that make water flow practically friction-free through nanotubes, and should lead to insights on how to make even better water filters.

 

The consortium of institutions involved in the Computing for Clean Water project is led by CNMM and involves researchers from 

 

· The National Centre for Nano Science and Technology of the Chinese Academy

of Sciences

 

· The University of Sydney and Monash University, both in Australia

 

· The Citizen Cyberscience Centre, based in Geneva, Switzerland.

 

The project is the result of an initiative launched by the Chinese Academy of Sciences

to promote volunteer participation in science. It is called CAS@home, and is hosted by

the Institute of High Energy Physics in Beijing.

 

To learn more about this project, and participate in it, visit World Community Grid at http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/

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