QuenchSea: Turn Seawater into Freshwater

Posted: June 27, 2020

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QuenchSea is a handheld seawater desalination gadget designed with sailors, campers, emergencies, and humanitarian relief in mind. Its design allows for a steady flow of seawater to pass through 3 stages of conversion, producing up to 3 liters of fresh, potable water in an hour. But there is a catch.

QuenchSea is powered manually. By you. Which is great when you're off the grid - in the middle of the ocean, or stranded on a desert island without power - but it does mean you're going to have to put in a lot of grunt work to turn salty straw into hydrating gold. A telescoping pole tucked into the side of the QuenchSea unit attaches to its base, and a footpad slides out for you to step on for stabilization. From there the effort looks straightforward, like pumping a well, but moving side-to-side instead of up-and-down. It's hard to tell how much resistance you're going to get from the water and filtration systems, but doing anything so repetitive nonstop for an hour is bound to add up.

Then again, as QuenchSea points out, "Of course, you have to pump for the entire period, but you will, if your life depends on it!"

As for the technology and mechanics driving the QuenchSea saltwater salt-sucker, the process goes something like this:

An internal hydraulic system builds pressure to 60 bars, the point at which the unit's reverse osmosis membrane can pull salts from the seawater you're pole-pumping in through the QuenchSea hose.
The water is then drawn through a triple filtration system. Ultrafilters and microfilters remove suspended solids, pathogens, parasites, and microplastics, and then an activated carbon filter works to make the resultant water's taste and smell "pleasant."
The water finishes in the QuenchSea's reverse osmosis membrane, which demineralizes it with pores small enough to allow water, but not salts, to pass through.
Freshwater pumps out through the hose on the other side, into whatever receptacle you have waiting. Again, it's about an hour for 3 liters of water, or 5 minutes per glass.

At printing QuenchSea was still in prototype phases, and the UK-based company was running a crowdfunding campaign for its production on IndieGoGo. You can check out the campaign page for a ton more information and videos, as well as the opportunity to back the project. For what it's worth, QuenchSea says they 100% guarantee product delivery or money back.

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