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Biomimicry Clips: Whale Filters And Wings Jeremy Faludi, 5 Feb
07 Article Photo  Here are two novel uses of biomimicry for
green design, both inspired by whales: one is for filtering
water, the other is for making airplane wings more efficient.
The University of South Australia has invented a water filter
that works like a whale's baleen. Baleen Filters require no
pressurization (which is what normally causes filtration to use
energy) and clean themselves (which avoids creating waste and
needing maintenance). They have a good video of how the product
works: basically, gunky water is poured out over a screen that
is much bigger than the water stream; as the screen catches gunk
(which blocks water flow), the water naturally flows over the
gunked-up part of the screen to the nearest part of the screen
that's still clean, so it still gets filtered; then every so
often a power-sprayer comes along at an oblique angle, pushing
the gunk collected on the scre