With populations around the world continuing to grow, water remains one of the most precious resources on Earth. However, scientists are now beginning to ponder the possibility of water scarcity and whether the problem can be combated with new approaches.

And it seems at least one team of scientists is on to something.

According to a newly released study, a team of scientists from the University of Marlburg, Germany, and the University of Texas at Austin hope to create a nearly unlimited supply of water. The process, one of the cheapest and most energy efficient ever created in terms of water desalination, addresses a number of issues that previous water desalination projects have struggled to solve. According to the team of scientists, the process eliminates the need for a membrane by separating salt from water at  the microscale. The technique, called electrochemically mediated seawater desalination, is described in the journal Angewandte Chemie.

By creating a series of channels built into a small computer chip, the team says they could provide the world with a massive amount of fresh water. The chip, invented by Richard M. Crooks at the University of Texas at Austin and Ulrich Tallarek at the University of Marburg, Germany, would force ocean water into a channel split into two branches. Each of the smaller channels, about 22 microns wide, would connect to an electrode that that juts into the point where the channels branch out from one another. Then, using a small amount of energy (just 3 volts), the team of scientists were able to target electrodes, changing some of the chloride ions, which have negative charges, into neutral chlorine.

The change in the electric field, according to researchers, is sufficient to split the salt into one branch, allowing freshwater to pass into the other branch. To date, Crooks and his colleagues have reportedly achieved nearly 25 percent desalination. While drinking water requires 99 percent desalination, the team of researchers say additional studies are planned and that they are hopeful they will be able to produce larger quantities of drinkable water. In a statement released by the University of Texas, the scientist said the latest experiment was “proof of principle.”

The new method is particularly promising for water-stressed areas around the world, including those in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and North Africa. The areas termed water-stressed include nearly one-third of the planets inhabitants, and many of these regions have access to a larges quantities of seawater, but not the energy infrastructure or money necessary two convert seawater into drinkable water. The device would literally save lives, according to experts, who say millions of deaths per year in water-starved regions are attributed to water-related causes.

Well the latest study is promising, one of the major challenges facing the team is the ability to scale up the process. Right now the current structure produces just 14 nanoliters of water per minute, barely enough to measure. According to Crooks and his team, to make the technique more practical for individual and communal use, a device would have to produce liters of water per day.

The team suggested a scaled-up model of the device could fundamentally alter human interaction with water around the world. Researchers say large quantities of water would provide farmers with a new generation of irrigated land, while mobile devices would provide a viable alternative for a disaster relief projects. The team noted that additional studies will examine how the device could be provided in different sizes, making it commercially viable.

The project was funded in part by the Office of Basic Energy Sciences in the U.S. Department of Energy.