Turning frozen lunar ice into clean drinking water and tackling Earth’s toughest water challenges

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17 jun 2025
2 minuten om te lezen

Big news. Our AquaLunarPure team, a collaboration between Queen Mary University of London, Waternet (NL) and the University of Washington, has won the 2nd Runner-Up Prize in the UK Space Agency’s Aqualunar Challenge. The prize was awarded for the development of a breakthrough Super-Critical Water Oxidation (SCWO) technology.

This innovation is designed to purify frozen, contaminated lunar ice, a crucial step towards sustainable human presence on the Moon. But its relevance goes far beyond space.

SCWO delivers

• 99.9998% water purity

• Over 99% water recovery

• Energy-efficient, autonomous operation in extreme environments

• Destruction of persistent contaminants such as PFAS and other emerging pollutants

While SCWO is not yet ready for large-scale practical application, continued research and development may bring this technology within reach in the near future.

“It’s not just about the Moon,” says Onno Kramer, senior process technologist at Waternet and visiting senior lecturer/professor at QMUL. “Extreme challenges in space mirror our growing water issues on Earth. Conventional approaches, where we keep stacking new treatment blocks, are reaching their limits. We need out-of-the-box systems that are autonomous, clean and future-ready.”

Waternet is proud to contribute to this international research effort. Innovation is essential if we are to face future challenges in drinking water supply. SCWO may become a game changer not just for PFAS removal but for a much wider range of pollutants in complex environments.

Equally important is the collaboration behind the success. A professional, open and enjoyable partnership between universities, utilities and research teams made this possible.

Congratulations to the AquaLunarPure team:

Edo Boek, Stoyan Smoukov, Onno Kramer, Adrián Farid Bustos Jiménez, Jincheng Wu, Yuchen Si.

Read more in The Guardian:

Gloucestershire company wins prize for inventing way to produce clean water on moon

https://lnkd.in/gn7dcADr

Let’s bring lunar lessons back to Earth!