Apparatus To Extract Clean Water From Coca-Cola Developed, Designer Says Its Easier To Get The Beverage Than Potable Water

Helmut Smits, a Netherlands-based multidisciplinary artist has attempted to highlight an interesting irony in this world. Though Coca-Cola’s drinks primarily consist of water, it is quite easier to get a chilled sugary beverage than potable drinking water around the world. Hence he has assembled a simple apparatus that extracts clean, transparent water from the carbonated drink and makes it suitable for human consumption.

The artist worked with the Synthetic Organic Chemistry Group at the University of Amsterdam to develop a device to turn Coca-Cola into clean drinking water, reported CNet. Called ‘The Real Thing’, the idea was originally conceived by Smits in 2006. He originally thought of assembling a simple reverse osmosis based device that could pull clean water from the drink, however, the original concept was easier to build using the principles of simple distillation.

The project was made for the Sense Nonsense exhibition at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, which opened in October during Dutch Design Week. Explaining his project and his intentions, Helmut said,

“I try to look at the world and the things around us as a child or as an alien, like I see things for the first time. When I looked at Coca-Cola that way, I saw dirty brown water, so it was logical to filter it back into clean drinking water, just as we do with all our waste water.”

Research conducted by Helmut revealed; to produce a single liter of Coca-Cola can require up to nine liters of clean drinking water, which he feels is “absurd.” Expanding upon the plight of the world, Helmut continued,

“In some parts of the world people don’t have access to clean drinking water, but you can buy a bottle of Coke there,”

The final apparatus is a simple distillery that uses a heat source to boil Coca-Cola, reported PSFK. The water-vapor travels upward, then traverses through a glass tube to a funnel and finally condenses back into clean water, which is collected in a beaker. This water is technically referred to as a De-Mineralized (DM) Water and is unfit for human consumption. Hence the designer appended the apparatus to add minerals to the water.

Though the apparatus-cum-art installation is nothing but a lab-sized example of the distillation process, it was an attempt to highlight the fact that beverage companies consume a lot of water to make and later market their products. If only they could focus on making clean drinking water available to the masses at cheaper rates, the world’s drinking water problem could be greatly alleviated.

[Image Credit | Dutch Design Week]