A team of scientists recently developed a sustainable, solar-powered way to desalinate water in just 30 minutes.

Over 2 billion people around the world currently lack access to clean water. And the problem is only expected to get worse.

Scientists have been working to solve this problem for decades. We have some solutions, but many require electricity which isn’t always an option for rural communities.

Now, a team of scientists from Australia and China has discovered a sustainable solution that relies on sunlight to power the filtration process.

The method uses a super-porous metal ion material to remove salt from brackish and saltwater. For every kilogram of material, the process generates 40 gallons of water. 

“Sunlight is the most abundant and renewable source of energy on Earth. Our development of a new absorbent-based desalination process through the use of sunlight for regeneration provides an energy-efficient and environmentally-sustainable solution for desalination,” lead author Professor Huanting Wang said in a statement. 

The next step is to get this technology out into the field where it could impact millions of lives across the globe.