Reverse Osmosis Subsurface Drip Irrigation

The Reverse Osmosis Subsurface Drip Irrigation System developed in Australia lets plants draw water through salt filters in irrigation pipes at their roots, using the tiny amounts of energy naturally createdby evaporation at their leaves.The genius of the system is that it can determine if there is enough suction energy created at the roots of plants by natural evaporation to draw the water through a reverse osmosis (semi-permeable) filter. While farmers already use reverse osmosis filters to remove salt from brackish water, until now the water has had to be pushed through the filter using high pressure. For the first time, there is a potential passive biological alternative to the existing high-cost, high-energy desalination options.For this Leslie and Sutton were awarded Eureka Prize. For Technology transfer contact: University of Sydney