{"id":8068,"date":"2024-11-18T12:26:29","date_gmt":"2024-11-18T17:26:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/academic\/?p=8068"},"modified":"2026-03-26T08:23:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T12:23:26","slug":"how-siemens-nx-is-being-used-to-provide-clean-water-around-the-globe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/academic\/how-siemens-nx-is-being-used-to-provide-clean-water-around-the-globe\/","title":{"rendered":"How Siemens NX is being used to provide clean water around the globe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Access to safe drinking water has been recognized as a fundamental human right by the United Nations since 2010. However, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/future-perfect\/367224\/clean-drinking-water-access-four-billion-science-study\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">over 4 billion people<\/a> \u2013 more than half of the world\u2019s population \u2013 still don\u2019t have access to safe drinking water. For many of these populations, contaminated water poses a severe health risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To address this need, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sowadi.de\/en\/project\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Solar-Thermal Water Disinfection<\/a> (SoWaDi) project group from Engineers Without Borders has developed an innovative water purification system using Siemens NX.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-medium\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"382\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2024\/11\/water3-600x382.jpg\" alt=\"Two solar water purification systems set up outside.\" class=\"wp-image-8072\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2024\/11\/water3-600x382.jpg 600w, https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2024\/11\/water3.jpg 749w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A simple, easy-to-build standalone system&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>To overcome the practical challenges associated with traditional water purification systems, the SoWaDi group knew that they had to design a system that could be easily constructed with widespread materials and easily operated. In creating this design, they embraced the ideal of \u201chelping people to help themselves\u201d to make water purification as accessible as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To achieve these goals, they created a design in Siemens NX that could be built with simple tools and readily available materials such as wood, chicken wire and aluminum foil. With the aid of a step-by-step construction manual, this system can be built wherever water purification is needed. Finally, the design works without moving parts, which improves the lifespan and general reliability of the system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Similar to a flat plate collector, their eco-friendly design uses solar energy to improve water quality through heat treatment. By using solar thermal water treatment, the design also avoids the environmental harm caused by traditional methods like boiling water using wood or coal, which contribute to carbon emissions, deforestation, erosion and air pollution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;re a graduate student interested in pursuing how you can apply more advanced sustainability practices in your career, check out our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.coursera.org\/specializations\/applied-sustainability-technical-managers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Applied Sustainability for Technical Managers course with CU Boulder<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The project has already been successfully implemented in multiple countries. The team continues to collect data on their performance and reliability in real-world scenarios, which they are using to further optimize the system.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-medium\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2024\/11\/water1-600x400.jpg\" alt=\"A group of smiling people around a water purification system in Tanzania.\" class=\"wp-image-8073\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2024\/11\/water1-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2024\/11\/water1.jpg 715w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Designing a brighter, more sustainable future&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Much like the SoWaDi group at Engineers Without Borders, <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/academic\/learn-how-siemens-is-helping-students-design-a-more-sustainable-future\/\">engineering students around the world are eager<\/a> to develop innovative solutions for water scarcity, climate change and other challenges facing humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Siemens NX is the premier CAD\/CAM platform to create and evaluate designs from a sustainability perspective. Download <a href=\"https:\/\/trials.sw.siemens.com\/en-US\/trials\/nx-cad-cam-student-edition\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the student version of Siemens NX<\/a> for free today and start exploring features like Sustainability Impact Analysis so you can turn your vision for a better future into reality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Learn about an innovative water purification system designed by Engineers Without Borders using Siemens NX.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103577,"featured_media":8070,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spanish_translation":"","french_translation":"","german_translation":"","italian_translation":"","polish_translation":"","japanese_translation":"","chinese_translation":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"industry":[],"product":[],"coauthors":[1922],"class_list":["post-8068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2024\/11\/water2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/academic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/academic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/academic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/academic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/103577"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/academic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8068"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/academic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9054,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/academic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8068\/revisions\/9054"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/academic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/academic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/academic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/academic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8068"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/academic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=8068"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/academic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=8068"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/academic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=8068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}