Harvesting Drinking Water from Thin Air with a Groundbreaking Invention.
- July 1, 2024
- 392
Scientists have created a device that can extract drinking water from the air using a fin-like system.
This technology can help meet the growing global demand for clean water by extracting trillions of liters of water from the Earth's atmosphere.
A team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Tennessee, and the George Institute of Technology has developed a low-cost and compact system that uses sorption-based atmospheric water harvesting (SAWH). , and collect water on the absorbent pad.
Detailing the technology, the researchers said that nearly two-thirds of the world's population is water-scarce, and it is estimated that by 2030, nearly 40 percent of global annual water demand will not be met by public water. It will create more problems for health, agriculture and agricultural application.
The Earth's atmosphere has 13,000 trillion cubic feet of fresh water that could be harvested without relying on existing liquid water supplies, the researchers said. Sorption-based atmospheric water harvesting has the potential to harvest potable water in extremely arid environments while conventional atmospheric water harvesting methods are not viable solutions.
In a study describing the technology, the researchers pointed out that nearly two-thirds of the world's population suffers from water scarcity, and that by 2030, it is predicted that about 40% of the world's yearly water demand will not be satisfied, creating new difficulties for public health, agriculture, and agricultural applications.
There are more than 1300 trillion liters of readily accessible fresh water in the atmosphere, negating the need to rely on the present liquid water supply. In extremely dry conditions where traditional atmospheric water gathering techniques like dewing and fog harvesting are impractical, sorption-based atmospheric water harvesting offers the generation of drinkable water.
The majority of SAWH systems in use today run on solar energy, however because of their low energy density and erratic weather, they are not suited for satisfying everyday human needs.
The scientists suggest that this demand may be met by the new technology, which uses waste heat in a low-cost, high-performance way.
Based on calculations using a functional prototype of the system, it is possible to create up to 1.3 liters of drinkable water per day in air with 30% relative humidity using just one liter of absorbent coating on the fins—a capacity that is two to five times larger than that of prior systems.