I picked my Wife up from the county science fair yesterday and I was amazed by the high school projects. Being in Silicon Valley, my Wife explained that many of the high school students are working with industry on some of their projects. One in particular that I only got a brief glimpse of was comparing different methods of water softening and it mentioned carbon nanotubes as one of the most effective and most expensive alternatives.

Has anyone run across a carbon nanotube water softening system? Is it practical for home or corporate use? I have a feeling this method goes beyond just softening and provides high levels of filtration and maybe even desalination.

I wish I had more time to check out the project, this was a set-up day so the student wasn't there for me to ask questions; dependent variables, did the conclusions match the hypothesis, all the questions I'd asked when I was voluntold by my Wife to be a judge at her previous middle-school science gig.

I found this write-up which is simple enough for me to follow: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanofiltration