Dean Kamen wants to make the world healthier by giving everyone clean water. He says that fifty percent of human disease today is caused by waterborne pathogens. Further, he says that two million kids aged five and under die every year from bad water.
The Slingshot Water Purification machine is Kamen's answer to the problem of bad water. His solution is highlighted in the Slingshot short film, part of the GE Focus Forward arm of the Solve for X initiative.
https://www.solveforx.com/moonshots/slingshot
During development of a home dialysis machine, Kamen and his team at DEKA realized that their processes could take everything out of water and arrive at a product like distilled water. The Slingshot boils the water to steam and then compresses the water back into liquid form. The method uses no filters, no membranes and no chemicals to perform the process of distilling.
The water flows through a heat exchanger to be heated, then evaporates and is compressed and reheated. Contaminants are collected and discharged while the clean water flows to the other end of the device for drinking. One unit can create around 1000 Liters of clean water per day.
Working with the Coca-Cola company fifteen machines were built and installed in Ghana, and based on test results more Slingshots will be installed around Africa and Central America.
The idea of Dean Kamen's water purification machine isn't new. As early back as 2001 when the Segway was announced many FIRST robotics mentors (including myself) hoped that Kamen would be announcing his unnamed stirling cycle project. Prototypes were shown on 60 Minutes in 2003 and a memorable appearance on the Colbert Report in 2008.
The process itself is big on ideas but short on technical specifications. Cost, process parameters, and waste data aren't available online. A September 2013 article from Coca Cola talks about their Ekocenters, modular kiosks built around Slingshot units to bring clean water and basic necessities to the developing world. The plan is that by 2015, 100 million Liters of clean safe water will be delivered to 45,000 people across 20 countries.
http://assets.coca-colacompany.com/42/13/4e2e25c848899315c65117d413b4/ekocenter-and-goods-sold.jpg