Scientists develop 'dry water'

I came across this article and found it intresting. Some of the suggested uses for this are just awesome. From being able to "combine" oil and water, to safely transporting volatile substances.

I am curious what other doors might be opened up from this discovery.

Source - Dry Water

The substance resembles powdered sugar and is expected to make a big commercial splash. Each particle of dry water contains a water droplet surrounded by a sandy silica coating. In fact, 95% of dry water is "wet" water.

It has the potential to help the enviornment as well:

One of its key properties is a powerful ability to absorb gases.

Scientists believe dry water could be used to combat global warming by soaking up and trapping the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. Tests show that it is more than three times better at absorbing carbon dioxide as ordinary water. Dry water may also prove useful for storing methane and expanding the energy source potential of the natural gas.

This sounds really promising. But I guess it would take piles of this stuff as tall as the Rockies to be effective?

This doesn't sound very good at all, what practical use could dry water have??? The only thing I can see it doing is contaminating the air.... If it traps gases better than ordinary water I can see it being put to use as a very good biological weapon yayyy for dry water....

reply to post by jheated5


Almost all inventions can have a military use. Its one of the flaws that is inherent when developing new things. To go positive, it could be argued that since this invention is good at absoring gases, that it could be tailored to help negate the affect of chemical / biological weapons.

Scientists have a use for this stuff already. There is no telling what uses it might have down the road as people experiment with it in other areas.

The ability for it to help reduce the risk of volatile gases for transport is huge. Being able to mix stuff that otherwise would not mix opens the door to new materials also. Oil and water can only be mixed in space. Having the ability to experiment with mixing stuff on the ground instead of in space should help advance this technology faster.

Hmm, interesting.

From source.

Scientists believe dry water could be used to combat global warming by soaking up and trapping the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.

I actually see the global climate change thing becoming a "out" fad soon.

I see success in marketing this as a way to absorb noxious gas emitted from the anus.

Just eat some dry water and your embarrassment goes away .

Originally posted by wiredamerican
Hmm, interesting.

From source.

Scientists believe dry water could be used to combat global warming by soaking up and trapping the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.

I actually see the global climate change thing becoming a "out" fad soon.

I see success in marketing this as a way to absorb noxious gas emitted from the anus.

Just eat some dry water and your embarrassment goes away .

Actually it makes me wonder just how big of a discovery this is. Creating "Filters" with this stuff, then fitting them to vehicle exhaust pipes, heavy industry that utilizes exhaust stacks. It might be possible to get awesome use out of this on a smaller scale than it would be to create a larger "scrubbing" facility. Why not try to curtail the pollution at the source, instead of after the fact?

It could also go a long ways for a Mars mission. By sending modules to Mars before a manned mission to build "gas stations" ready for use on arrival.

[edit on 28-8-2010 by Xcathdra]

Originally posted by ladyinwaiting

Scientists believe dry water could be used to combat global warming by soaking up and trapping the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. Tests show that it is more than three times better at absorbing carbon dioxide as ordinary water. Dry water may also prove useful for storing methane and expanding the energy source potential of the natural gas.

This sounds really promising. But I guess it would take piles of this stuff as tall as the Rockies to be effective?

I think the best way to absorb carbon dioxide has been explained
by the man that said give me a tanker full of powdered iron and
I will give you an ice age.

www.environmentalgraffiti.com...

Something more useful would likely be solar desalination units
turning sea water into fresh water and then reclaim large sections
of the large deserts with trees that handle high heat well.

Trees store a lot of CO2 as carbon, plants intake CO2 and make
oxygen, thou the largest producer of oxygen is sea plants.

As a side they could be crop type trees like palm trees.

I think avocado trees can handle high heat well too.

I think banana, pineapple and mango would do well too.

The shade and food would make it more bearable for example in
places like the Sahara but near the ocean.

The solar still could make this happen, and produce a side crop
of sea salt as well.

Evaporation is accelerated by higher surface area, and higher heat.

Thus the stacked tray method would work best in my opinion.

The large amounts of sand in the Sahara could be turned into
glass cookware, glass bricks/blocks for building, drinking glasses,
and windows.

The glass could be made via a solar furnace.

The coastal areas could have these solar stills on their roofs.

Windmills could pump the salt water higher, and once desalinated
the fresh water could be moved in land and higher by additional
windmills making a lowly expanding green belt.

Something that might last longer would be to move the water as steam
further inland and the steam will go uphill under pressure.

The steam could then be condensed back into water far from the sea.

The super market had some "instant dry water" in a packet. I didn't buy it because I didn't know what to add.

Dry water hmmm. Although not related it reminds me of the movie The Tuxedo with Jackie Chan where the villain made water that dries you. He'd pollute the world's drinking water so he can have a monopoly on unpolluted water.

Soon they will probally cut off all water supplies and tell us we have to buy water tablets to survive.




Worse thing is we will all buy them What can u do in a useless world that u cant change? -- Play along!

reply to post by Ex_MislTech


I like your thoughts.

Isn't this typical human behavior?......We live a lifestyle which makes us sick, and then we search for a pill to correct it, so we can continue with the lifestyle.

Of course we would do the same to our Earth. It's our habit. We will find a way to give the Earth a "pill", to correct the problems making it sick, so we can continue with our poor addictions and habits.

We no longer want to do the right thing. We want to do the "wrong" thing, but repair the consequent results with a "pill".

Oh dear, I have waxed philosophical this morning.

Originally posted by MagickWithoutTears
Soon they will probally cut off all water supplies and tell us we have to buy water tablets to survive.

Worse thing is we will all buy them

What can u do in a useless world that u cant change? -- Play along!

Not sure why there are so many negative replies to this invention. The article says it can be used to transport hazardous chemicals more safely. So instead of having a tank full of nasty stuff that spills out in an accident into the environment, it simply spills a little bit on the ground that is easy to clean up. I'm sure that will be its main use and that is a good idea.

so take a water pill and a sugar pill add some kool aid that equals world peace everyone sip the kool aid

[edit on 29-8-2010 by pez1975]

Reminds me of the old Bugs Bunny episode where he accidentally spills a drop of water onto some dehydrated water tablets. The resulting flood washes everything away.

Well maybe dry water is good for storing?

An emergency supply of dry water that doesn't go bad?

Whats the shelf life of the stuff?

It would be nice to have an emergency supply of this stuff, IMHO.

Yeah, and maybe when the dry water mixes with wet water it creates more dry water, till all the wet water in the world drys up into dry water...then how will we drink it?
Ice 9 all over again...yeesh!

How about swimming in a pool of dry water? No towel required when you get out.

Well either way a step in the right direction. Makes me wonder what else this stuff can be used for.

Way back in the day when the electron was discovered, there was no practical use for it at the time.

Same with the monkey glass that was created back in the dya that is now being sought after by flat screen tv and cell phone manufacturers.

Sounds like a variation of silica gel to me. You know, that stuff you get in various products to keep them dry. Those little paper packets that say "do not eat". But now they're finding a use for it in a pre-saturated form and with much much smaller beads.

Perhaps those desiccant packets might be something to try some at-home experiments with after soaking them in water?

I bet it does have a lot of interesting industrial applications, but under certain conditions it's likely you'd end up with plain ol' silica gel again.

Originally posted by Quickfix
Well maybe dry water is good for storing?

An emergency supply of dry water that doesn't go bad?

Whats the shelf life of the stuff?

It would be nice to have an emergency supply of this stuff, IMHO.

The amount of energy required to separate the water from the silica would probably be prohibitive. The company I work for does something similar using modified silica and silicones. The resulting material is incredibly stable - it can survive prolonged 900C temperatures with essentially no loss of material.