A chemical engineer whose work spans the laboratory, the desert, and the increasingly strained water systems of the American South is drawing attention for a new technology that offers clean water and cooling in a single process. The idea, developed by Ayman Al-Azab and now protected under a U.S. patent (US20240343616A1), comes at a time when water scarcity is forcing governments and researchers to rethink how essential resources are produced.
Al-Azab, who studied chemical engineering at the University of Virginia, has built his career around one question: how to make water treatment cheaper and more resilient for communities that cannot rely on stable electricity or large-scale infrastructure. His latest innovation attempts to do this by merging two established but traditionally separate systems – adsorption desalination and direct-contact membrane distillation.
The design captures heat that would ordinarily be lost and uses it to sustain the membrane process, increasing the volume of fresh water produced. As a by-product, the cycle generates cooling, a feature that could prove invaluable in regions where high temperatures and water shortages often coincide.
Speaking about the work, Al-Azab said his interest was shaped by what he saw in parts of the Middle East and Africa, where water and energy scarcity frequently overlap. “The sun is abundant, saline water is everywhere, yet families still struggle for drinking water and basic cooling,” he said. “If a system can run on solar energy and provide both, it changes what is possible.”
His publication describing the method appeared in Desalination, a leading journal in the field, and was later presented at the European Symposium on Computer-Aided Process Engineering in Athens. Researchers there highlighted its potential for locations where electricity supply is unreliable and thermal resources are underused.
But Al-Azab’s work extends beyond desalination. Earlier research focused on removing industrial pollutants from complex wastewater streams, including a Saudi Aramco-funded project in which he helped develop polymeric filters capable of removing organic contaminants with unusually high efficiency. One of his papers, centred on a magnetic, cellulose-based filter designed for harsh environments, received an award from Elsevier’s Journal of Water Process Engineering for its practical potential.
He currently works in Texas, where he has overseen more than 30 wastewater treatment projects for rural communities and commercial facilities. These projects reflect the applied nature of his work – systems that must operate every day, not only in controlled research settings.
Al-Azab also contributes to global scientific discussions, serving as a reviewer and committee member for major international conferences in North America, Australia, India and the Middle East. His peers say this is an indication of his growing influence in shaping how emerging water technologies are assessed and adopted.
Across his work runs a consistent theme: finding ways to deliver clean water that are affordable and suited to regions facing rising temperatures and tightening freshwater supplies. In that context, his dual-function desalination technology – making use of heat that would normally be wasted – has begun to attract wider interest among researchers and policymakers examining sustainable solutions for a warming world.
