The world has a ton of salt water, but humans can really only drink fresh water. Obviously, something has to give; we have to find a way to desalinate our water more effectively so we can tap into the Earth's seemingly endless waves to solve our drought problems.
Graphene just might be able to help. This newfangled wonder material is being considered for filtering saline minerals from our natural water sources to make it drinkable. Special graphene filters may be able to remove salts from salt water through a process known as reverse osmosis.
Since this process usually takes up a lot of energy, graphene has been predicted by computer models to reduce the energy needed by almost half. This equates to huge savings and puts desalination into the reach of poorer communities that can't currently afford taking on this process on a widespread scale.
Graphene continues to be considered for all kinds of potential uses in the manufacturing field, such as smartphones and solar panels, but the seemingly endless flow of potential uses continues on. It should be interesting to see how it really gets used after our ability to manufacture the stuff more efficiently officially comes into focus.
