An emerging new idea is to learn how to separate salt from water (i.e. desalt water) using concepts from biology. Our cell membranes have special proteins that can help filter water while excluding salts. Some of these membrane proteins can also separate salt ions from each other. A number of scientists think that membranes inspired by such biological membranes could be ideal for desalination and similar applications. This idea of "biomimetic membranes" was inspired by the discovery of the water transporting protein, Aquaporin. Learn more about Professor Peter Agre who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work on these water channels. You can learn more about his scientific journey to this discovery here.

A talk laying out some of the early ideas around biomimetic membranes for desalination is linked here. What do you think the challenges could be in commercializing such an idea? You can read about commercialization efforts through the story of the company Aquaporin A/S. Many people think making a water filter from proteins is not a scalable idea due to the perceived fragility of proteins, so some scientists are working to create non biological versions of aquaporins created using organic chemistry. These non biological versions are called artificial water channels, and you can follow along with those efforts here.

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