Scientists have transformed a piece of wood into a membrane that can filter saltwater.

Traditional membrane distillation involves pumping saltwater though a film that’s usually made of plastic. The plastic membrane features extremely narrow pores that block salt from passing, only allowing access to water molecules.

Princeton researchers have developed a similar technique but using wood.

“If you think of traditional water filtration, you need very high-pressure pumping to squeeze the water through, so it uses a lot of energy,” said lead researcher Jason Ren. “This is more energy efficient and it doesn’t use fossil-fuel based materials like many other membranes for water filtration.”

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