A team of engineers at MIT has created a new device that can harvest clean drinking water from the air, even in extremely dry environments like Death Valley. The device, called an atmospheric water harvester, uses a hydrogel made from materials such as polyvinyl alcohol and lithium chloride to attract water molecules from the air.
The harvester was tested in Death Valley and successfully extracted over 50 milliliters of safe-to-drink water per day. This is a significant improvement over previous attempts at atmospheric water harvesting, which have been limited by low rates of water production and contamination.
In this study, the hydrogel was molded into a bubble-wrap shape to increase its surface area for water collection. The team ensured that the microstructure of the gel lacked large enough pores to let the water-attracting salt slip out, while glycerol helped contain the salt inside the gel.
The device worked by attracting up to 160 milliliters of water molecules overnight when humidity was at its highest, and then collecting the water through a system of channels. The device could potentially be scaled up to supply drinking water to people in resource-limited regions.
The researchers are optimistic about the potential impact of this technology, which they believe can help solve the global problem of access to clean drinking water. However, they acknowledge that there is still much work to be done to optimize the design and make it more widely available.
This innovative solution could provide a new source of clean drinking water in some of the world’s most water-stressed regions, and may even help alleviate the effects of climate change by harnessing moisture from the air.
Source: https://www.sciencealert.com/this-strange-bubble-wrap-can-produce-drinking-water-in-the-desert