The University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a university that is part of the pulse of the water sector. Here we bring together everything it publishes on Smart Water Magazine: its news, its blogs and the events it takes part in.
New method optimizes lithium extraction from seawater and groundwater
As the electric vehicle market booms, the demand for lithium—the mineral required for lithium-ion batteries—has also soared. Global lithium production has more than tripled in the last decade. But current methods of extracting lithium from rock ores or brines are slow and come with high energy demands and environmental costs. They also require sources of […]
New study offers a cleaner path for controlling water, transforming greenhouse gases
Scientists looking to convert carbon dioxide into clean fuels and useful chemicals often make hydrogen gas and carbonates as unwanted byproducts. A new paper from the UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering has found a cleaner path. Carbon dioxide is the greenhouse gas, singlehandedly responsible for 78% of the change in energy balance in Earth's atmosphere between […]
Team discovers microbes thriving in groundwater and producing oxygen in the dark
Nearly a third of Earth’s freshwater resources lie in groundwater – much more than in all lakes, rivers and the atmosphere combined, and exceeded only by the frozen water in polar ice caps. Accordingly, about half of humankind depends on groundwater as a source of drinking water. Despite the global occurrence and essential importance of […]
To predict environmental changes, researchers create a new generation of wireless sensor networks
The "internet of things," a growing web of interconnected devices—constituting everything from smart bulbs to warehouse robots—is posited as a central pillar of the "fourth industrial revolution" because of how drastically it improves connectivity and information sharing. Now imagine that web expanding beyond buildings and into the landscape, forming a sensory network that monitors the […]
The historical roots of a contemporary groundwater crisis
For well over a century the immense biodiversity of the lands that constitute Spain's Doñana National Park has attracted the attention of hunters, nature-lovers, and natural scientists from across the Western world. Iberian lynx, fallow and red deer, wild boar, badgers, and vast flocks of migratory and endemic birds thrived in wetlands, dunes, and forests, […]
Students identify Chicago neighborhoods most at risk of urban flooding
Harris Policy Labs students work to help vulnerable residents who may be distrustful of government.
Study suggests hydraulic fracturing can impact surface water quality
The estimated impact on water quality is more pronounced during the period when wells generate large amounts of flowback and produced water, and where water monitors are closest to wells. More data is needed to better understand the full extent of the impact.
Could AI help recover energy and fresh water from municipal wastewater?
UChicago, Argonne to develop test systems to save energy, benefit underserved communities.
Icy clouds could have kept early Mars warm enough for rivers and lakes, study finds
Simulation led by UChicago geoscientist finds missing piece to Martian climate puzzle.